What a tired and cynical article by Jack Ferguson on Standard grade English (TESS last week).
There are concerns about the level of support offered on re-drafting, and teachers need to exercise control over this process. But the “typical scenario” he paints, where a grade 4 piece morphs into a grade 1, is fanciful and ignores the established performance criteria about the content of a piece of writing.
What I find most objectionable is the snide undermining of teachers. There is pressure to achieve high grades, but the suggestion that grades are falsified to support overall grades is unwarranted.
There may be a legitimate debate about articulation between Standard grade and National Qualifications and the needs of an ever-increasing cohort of post-16 students, but Standard grade English has been a success story.
Larry Flanagan
Principal teacher English
Hillhead High
Glasgow
