GCSE

What to expect for 2023 GCSEs?

Mar 29, 2023 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

Examinations are quickly getting back to the pre-covid times. With normalcy, GCSE 2023, students have been facing a lot of anticipation regarding what they will be facing and what they can expect, especially since the government’s decision to reinstate the pre-covid examination grading scale.

GCSE exams are scheduled to be held during May and June of this year. If you too are wondering about the exams and have little to no idea, this blog will cover all aspects of the 2023 GCSE exams and will be answering some of the most-asked questions.

How non-attendees can pass GCSEs

Mar 17, 2022 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

Traditional GCSE exams are returning for the first time in three years, what can non-attendees do to help towards getting a pass grade?

GCSEs: Students can sit exams if they don’t like results

Jul 1, 2020 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Students can sit exams this autumn, should they disagree with predicted GCSEs in 2020.

Schools will determine an expected grade for pupils using a number of metrics.

If students feel they can do better than the result prescribed, they will though have an option to sit an exam. But how will this work in practice? This blog post explains.

Manage your 2021 GCSEs

Jun 24, 2020 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Schools are returning full-time in September – and your priority should be those students with their GCSEs coming up who are now behind on their learning.

The return to secondary school has been led by Year 10 students, with pressure on them to get caught up quickly.

How should you go about getting students caught up and preparing them for their GCSEs?

Your present Year 10s are your number one priority

Jun 19, 2020 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Secondary schools in England are now open and the focus has turned to present Year 10s.

Exams may not be taking place this year, but next year’s Year 11 cohort may not be so fortunate. Therefore pressure is on Year 10s to get caught up quickly.

This blog post takes a look at the effects of the educational gap on GCSE students and what can be done to help students catch up.

When is the best time to revise?

Feb 23, 2020 | Exams, GCSE, Homework | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

To revise is a crucial skill in preparing for exams. As end of year exams edge clearly, revision will form a crucial part of your strategy of best performing for an exam.

But when is the best time to revise? Is it during the day? Is it during the night?

5 simple strategies…to prepare students for exams

Apr 18, 2018 | Exams, GCSE, Teaching | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

Exam season is difficult for everyone, and many students will find themselves feeling stressed as well as overwhelmed.

It can be hard to prepare them for the upcoming tests, but you can at least try to make it easier on them. Here are five simple strategies that you can use to help prepare students for exams.

What did we learn from the new GCSE results?

Dec 15, 2017 | Exams, GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Pay attention at the back – the papers are marked, the grades are in. The long-awaited year of the GCSE shakeup can now be dissected and analysed.

The question is – what did we learn from the new GCSE results?

Exam results – are they an accurate measure of achievement?

Jul 19, 2017 | Exams, Achievement, GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

The subject of whether or not exam results are an accurate measure of achievement is one that has found itself in the headlines quite frequently over the past couple of years.

There are many voices on either side of the debate – all seemingly promoting logical yet diametrically opposing views. So, do exam results matter and are they an indicator of ability?

The new GCSE grade scale: what does the change to 1-9 mean?

May 3, 2017 | GCSE, Exams, News | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

As is commonplace for those in the education system, the past 24 months have marked much change, not least of which is the new GCSE grade scale.

Teachers, parents and pupils alike have faced a transition from the old scale of U – A*, to U to 9. Let’s explore what this change means and why it has been put in place.

School league tables – what do they really mean?

Apr 21, 2017 | School Management, GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

League tables could be said to be a snapshot of the quality of a school; a grade which represents every lesson, each extra pastoral support meeting and the blood, sweat and tears of every teacher and pupil within a school over the past 12 months.

But can league tables could ever represent all of these elements? This question has been at the heart of a 2017 revolution in how the league tables are calculated. Let’s look at the before, the after and the impact of both.

Does Progress 8 help vocational learners?

Mar 23, 2017 | News, GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Progress 8 was launched amid a flurry of educational sector changes; for years, teachers and school management have done battle with all sorts of metrics, and the balance between the focus on grades and what’s best for the pupil.

There were positive expectations when Progress 8 was introduced back in August 2016. Some seven months on, we look at what this change has meant for the educational sector, and moreover, what it has meant for vocational learners who had previously been relatively overlooked by the old system.

How much freedom do students really have over their subject choices?

Feb 27, 2017 | Curriculum, GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

As you progress throughout high school, you learn more and more about the type of person you are going to grow up to be.

You will discover new things, hidden talents and hopefully realise what you want to do with your life, or at least, what direction you want it to go in. This is why schools let students choose which subjects they want to take…to an extent.

The drop in GCSE results – what went wrong?

Nov 14, 2016 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

This year’s overall A* to C pass rate has suffered its sharpest decline since GCSEs were first sat in 1988, down 2.1 percentage points from 69% in 2015, to 66.9%.

A browse through the many column inches of blame-laying reveals two popular culprits: the new requirement for pupils to resit Maths and English if they don’t secure a grade C in Year 11, and the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

10 Key Changes to the GCSE

Oct 18, 2016 | GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Summer 2016 was a headline-grabber for all the wrong reasons as the lowest GCSE results in a decade were unveiled. Michael Gove claimed the changes would “address the pernicious damage caused by grade inflation and dumbing down”.

Will next year’s results be easier to digest after the first new GCSE exams have been taken? Only time will tell.

In the news: 5 EBacc GCSEs to be studied by all pupils

Jun 12, 2015 | GCSE, Curriculum, News | 0 |

Reading time: < 1 minute

Yesterday, news emerged on the plans due to be put forward by Nick Gibb, schools minister, that all secondary school pupils in England will be expected to take five GCSEs in EBacc subjects: English, maths, science, a language and history or geography.

The Conservatives’ election manifesto stated that if schools did not offer these, they would not be eligible for a top Ofsted rating (BBC).

GCSE Reforms: New Maths Papers ‘Too Hard’

May 22, 2015 | GCSE, Exams, Maths | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

The BBC is reporting today on the news that exam regulators Ofqual have deemed the new maths GCSEs ‘too difficult’.

The exams from Edexcel, OCR and WJEC have been deemed too difficult, whereas the papers from AQA need to be more challenging.

Careers in the gaming industry

Jun 30, 2014 | Employment, GCSE, ICT, Life Skills | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Sheffield had an exciting event over the weekend to celebrate Britain’s gaming heritage and to inspire a new generation of gamers with Games Britannia Live! The event took place at various venues around the city with plenty to get involved with.

Arcade games lined the Millennium Gallery and gamers young and old gathered round the stalls to partake in workshops and test their design skills.

Repetition for revision

May 6, 2014 | Exams, Assessment, GCSE, Homework | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

In this month’s issue of ED Journal, we explored a few methods we believed would be beneficial to a pupil’s revision programme. Although the majority of the article focused on technological aspects, the use of certain websites for example, there was one suggestion we included that did not require any kind of technology (although it certainly could be incorporated). I would like to look a little more in-depth at this strategy and the theory behind it.

5 Simple Strategies…to use technology for exam revision

Apr 30, 2014 | Exams, BTEC, Curriculum, GCSE | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

Alongside the standard revision advice we issue to our pupils which includes the importance of not cramming, using cue cards and mind maps, completing practice papers and dissecting the marking criteria, at EDLounge we believe there are great possibilities for utilising more technological methods for revision purposes.

Conversation launched for new GCSEs

Apr 8, 2014 | GCSE, Curriculum, News | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Last week saw the news that Ofqual had “launched a conversation with the public on how standards should be set for new GCSEs.” The new GCSE shake-up will include the replacement of A-C grades with a 1-9 numbered scale, with 1 for the lowest performers and 9 for the top performers; thought to be “awarded to only half the pupils now achieving an A*” (BBC, 2014).

Progress 8

Mar 31, 2014 | GCSE, News | 0 |

Reading time: < 1 minute

In 2016, Progress 8 will be introduced into all schools. Schools will also be able to opt-in one year early to the new accountability system.

Progress 8 captures the progress a pupil makes from the end of primary school to the end of key stage 4 (KS4). Progress 8 is a type of value added measure, which means that pupils’ results at the end of KS4 are compared to the actual achievements of other pupils with the same prior attainment. Progress 8 will be used as the floor standard measure. (DfE Progress 8 measure in 2016)

The GCSE gender gap

Jan 30, 2014 | Curriculum, GCSE, News | 0 |

Reading time: 2 minutes

Last week The Independent revealed that “Girls lack confidence in their ability in maths and science and are therefore put off from applying for jobs in engineering and computing” (The Independent, January 2014).

Every year the GCSE gender gap in school subjects is brought into the spotlight, with an attempt to analyse the cause of this division.

5 Simple Strategies…to raise A*-C grades for your pupils on the Alternative Curriculum

Nov 29, 2013 | Exams, GCSE, School Improvement | 0 |

Reading time: 3 minutes

Over the past 4 years we have worked with over 300 schools that have incorporated numerous strategies into their alternative curriculum environments. The primary focus in all of these establishments is to raise overall standards by delivering a suitable and well-rounded provision to help raise the students’ A*-Cs attainment. Some of these strategies have been successful whilst the majority have failed due to lack of support, funding or expertise.

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