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Post by housesparrow on Jun 22, 2012 15:12:05 GMT
Maybe the GCSE is too easy; if large percentages keep getting top grades, they probably are.
But the joy of the GCSE is that everyone takes them. The maths exam has two different levels: foundation, where the highest grade is a C, and a higher level paper with stuff like calculus (I think). An employer will treat a C grade as a pass, and won't know whether the student did brilliantly at foundation level, or scraped through the higher paper. But they will both get the same certificate!
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Post by Patrick on Jun 22, 2012 16:47:58 GMT
Not in a very good position to comment today, I'm sure I'm solar powered. Bloody rotten day in the Damp North West. Just put the heating on for a bit. Hating this Government with a vengeance - Don't have a lot of time for many a politician but this lot!  They are thinking that GCSE's are rubbish? Not as rubbish as potential employers used to think CSE's were? Remember the running joke with Rodney in "Only Fools and Horses"? "He's got a CSE in Woodwork". We know Blair reckoned he "Hit the Ground Running" when they took over in 1997 - Well this current lot have hit the ground running and taken most of the infrastructure that makes existence tolerable with them. .........but don't worry folks! Here's a Bright Shiny thing with a flame on top to watch! Watch out for the flame Citizens! Be Awed by it's shiny brightness! Grrrrrrr! |
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Post by Weyland on Jun 22, 2012 16:51:28 GMT
Maybe the GCSE is too easy; if large percentages keep getting top grades, they probably are. But the joy of the GCSE is that everyone takes them. The maths exam has two different levels: foundation, where the highest grade is a C, and a higher level paper with stuff like calculus (I think). An employer will treat a C grade as a pass, and won't know whether the student did brilliantly at foundation level, or scraped through the higher paper. But they will both get the same certificate! Good points all, Sparra. I just figured out that I've worked for ten companies in my time, and only one of them ever asked for details and evidence of qualifications, or consulted a referee. IBM. Luckily I've never lied on a CV. Much. Dunno if this is a common experience. |
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Post by Weyland on Jun 22, 2012 17:01:24 GMT
Well this current lot have hit the ground running and taken most of the infrastructure that makes existence tolerable with them. They haven't even scratched the surface of their ambitions yet. Last time this happened -- 1979 -- I buggered off sharpish to the Continent. One of the best decisions I ever made. And I'm going to be doing it again just as soon as I can sell this house. In a village where every other house is already for sale. (That's apart from the ones that are To Let.) |
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Post by Patrick on Jun 22, 2012 17:08:51 GMT
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 22, 2012 18:51:51 GMT
The coursework has been abolished in some subjects and seriously reduced in others. My maths tutor said it was because parents were doing it. I hadn't a clue what I was doing with the assignments and did rather badly, so got a grade lower than the one I should have got had it been marked on the exams alone.
So goodness knows how parents knew how to do it!
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Post by bonbonlarue on Jun 22, 2012 19:45:29 GMT
Suddenly everyone's in up in arms about 'O' levels...the really dreadful thing is the academies and Gove's roughshod attitude over the law. Let's not be sidetracked from the real menace of the man.
He must have the dirt on the Cabinet to be getting away with all this...but then when your 'friend and mentor' is Rupert Murdoch anything is possible.
Our whole education system and indeed our children are at risk.
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 23, 2012 3:27:04 GMT
I don't understand what an academy school is.
Out town's high school has a poor reputation. both academically and for bullying. It has clawed its way up from an OFSTED "oh dear" to a "satisfactory" . It now has a super state of the art school building, but still parents don't want their children to go there.
It has applied for academy status. What will that do for it?
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Post by jean on Jun 23, 2012 7:15:14 GMT
Maybe the GCSE is too easy; if large percentages keep getting top grades, they probably are. If the top grades really did correspond to the old O level, as they were supposed to when the exam was introduced, then it's a nonsense to go on as though a grade C pass was the lowest acceptable attainment at 16+ which seems to be what's happened. More later. |
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Post by jean on Jun 23, 2012 7:24:19 GMT
It has applied for academy status. What will that do for it? Get it more money - but crucially, it will allow it to get rid of problem pupils without penalty and without question. Then some other school will have to take them, and get the blame for not doing the impossible. |
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Post by Weyland on Jun 23, 2012 8:07:16 GMT
It has applied for academy status. What will that do for it? Get it more money - but crucially, it will allow it to get rid of problem pupils without penalty and without question. Then some other school will have to take them, and get the blame for not doing the impossible. And teachers? |
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Post by bonbonlarue on Jun 23, 2012 12:11:10 GMT
Get it more money - but crucially, it will allow it to get rid of problem pupils without penalty and without question. Then some other school will have to take them, and get the blame for not doing the impossible. And teachers? Teachers will lose any control. Lessons will be decided by the government [Gove] and children will be tested ad infinitum. Result: Dispirited teachers unable to help less able pupils and children who will never experience the joy of learning. |
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Post by housesparrow on Jun 23, 2012 16:52:21 GMT
Outr local school has plenty of troublemakers, but to be fair it doesn't do badly by the less academic; at least, it has a vocational studies centre and its website shows a picture of a lad learning bricklaying - yes, with a real trowel and what looks like actual cement! They offer things like hairdressing so I expect to see a lot of teachers wandering around with odd haircuts.
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