Category: National Curriculum

Exams or Teacher Grading

Exams or Teacher Grading

In response to a Telegraph article on the announcement by the Department for Education on this year’s exams (you can read the PDF of the article here), is that you can only have one or the other. It seems there is going to be a ‘free for all’. Slimmed-down but compulsory exams offer a way…

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SNP must scotch its disastrous curriculum

SNP must scotch its disastrous curriculum

Scotland’s education system was once envied across the world and countries scrambled to copy it. But now, under the SNP’s rule, it has become a scandal which the rulers north of the border are attempting to cover up. The progressive approach taken by the 2010 ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ is to blame. Trendy methods excited university…

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How to put the ass into assessments

How to put the ass into assessments

One effect of the pandemic not yet wholly appreciated is the way it has exposed the weakness in assessing children’s progress at primary school level. A dramatic shake-up of the SATs system around four years ago has left educators and parents unaware of exactly how children in this age range are faring. Before the changes,…

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Wales has got it wrong

Wales has got it wrong

The decision by the Welsh Assembly to do away with exams next year is foolhardy and will store up major problems. There is a faction in progressive educational circles that want to axe exams, and the pandemic has given them the perfect opportunity to kick-start the process. But exams, while not perfect, are by far…

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