GCSE results (and family spelling tests)
Robin, my smallest friend (2 years, 2 months and 3 weeks, to be precise) is learning adjectives for size. When we go to the river to throw stones - “stow tones, Tatie!” - we discuss the size of each stone as I scoop them up and transfer them to his tiny hands. Dripping wet, I hold out a selection of stones for him to choose: ‘big one’, ‘baby one’, ‘little one’, ‘massive one’, ‘huge one’. Robin’s favourite stone size is ‘normous’, so much so that he now corrects his mum if she describes him as a baby: “Normous boy,” he tells her, firmly.
Today, ‘normous’ congratulations are due to all GCSE students receiving their hoped-for results today, including Marcus (aka Godson #2) who achieved ten grade 9s. His results are so exceptional that I have been basking in his reflected glory and telling all and sundry that he gets his brilliance from me, despite his very fine parents and the absence of any biological connection between us.
While I am absolutely delighted for Marcus (far right in the picture) and for all his peers who are now past the GCSE hurdle and onto the next stage of their education, the BBC reports the worrying statistic that the pass rate across England, Wales and Northern Ireland has fallen for the third year running with 67.6% of grades awarded at grade 4 / C or above. This - of course - means that 32.4 % of grades are at grades 1-3 / G-D so more than a quarter of students are not achieving results defined as a pass.
Press reports about today’s results vary. The Guardian notes that GCSE results are back to pre-pandemic statistics and analyses regional and social variations that reveal tremendous inequalities. The TES identifies the widening difference in results between state and privately educated students and reports that pass rates are down in English and Maths.
My concern is, of course, GCSE results in English Language and Literature, with a particular focus on Language as the national qualification that assesses students’ fundamental literacy at age 16. The only exception to this is Functional Skills English which can be offered instead of English Language. For the majority of students, however, GCSE English lessons culminate in the English Language Paper, and most young people also take English Literature because the two subjects are taught in tandem.
The TES states that, ‘This year, 61.6 per cent of entries managed to achieve a passing grade or higher in English Language, a fall from last year when 64.2 per cent were awarded grade 4/C or above.’ The data analysis goes on to qualify this as follows: ‘However, much of this is driven by entries from students aged 17 or over who are likely resitting. In England, 20.9 per cent of entries from these students were awarded a grade 4/C - a drop from 25.9 per cent last year.’
As an English specialist, these statistics and the detail about students resitting the GCSE are a significant cause for concern. They are also an alarmingly accurate reflection of research undertaken at the University of Exeter by Lee Elliot Major, the country’s first Professor of Social Mobility. As reported in the press this week, Elliot Major has a particular interest in the ‘left behind’ students represented by the 38.4% of English Language entries awarded results lower than a grade 4. In The Forgotten Fifth research project, Elliot Major investigates the educational experiences of teenagers who do not achieve a grade 4 in Maths or English Language and who cannot, therefore, demonstrate basic numeracy and literacy. According to current policies, these students are required to re-sit these qualifications until they either achieve the pass grade or leave education at 18, whichever comes first.
Re-taking examinations is hard because the process is boring and repetitive. This is one of the reasons why many of these young people never succeed in improving their results so that they enter the workforce without the ability to demonstrate functional literacy or numeracy. As Lee Elliot’s research indicates, the long-term prospects for these young people are poor when measured in terms of health, mental well-being, social prospects, and contact with police and other agencies.
‘The Forgotten Fifth’ project identifies many layers of complex disadvantage that result in poor educational outcomes. It also discusses the problem of ‘intergenerational transmission’ by which parents with poor skills in literacy and numeracy struggle to improve their children’s attainment. In his 2019 TEDx talk, ‘How can we level the playing field of life?’, Lee Elliot Major examined equity in education and suggested radical reforms to prevent young people’s talent being lost to poor social mobility. ‘The Forgotten Fifth’ develops this work and concludes with six recommendations to improve student outcomes in GCSE English and Maths:
The importance of parental education and the home learning environment
Identifying, diagnosing and responding to low literacy and number skills in children at every stage of their education
Investing in high quality early years education
Improving parental engagement and the home learning environment
Recognising summer born disadvantage
Considering reforms to examinations.
As an English teacher and tutor, two of these recommendations (numbers 3 and 6) are above my pay grade and I am acutely aware that private tuition cannot address social and economic inequalities. That said, all educators can work with these recommendations in mind and I do so in the following ways:
I acknowledge the particular challenges faced by summer born children who might be 6-9 months younger than their peers at the start of a new school year. This difference can be significant and the issue is cumulative because each school year might result in summer born children feeling left behind in age and progress. Tutoring sessions can help these students feel more confident about their knowledge and understanding so that they no longer feel disadvantaged by a numerical reality that they cannot control.
I pay very close attention to my students’ literacy skills and discuss any concerns with parents and carers attention so that these can be formally identified and addressed in the mainstream school environment as well as during tutoring sessions.
I recognise that parental education and engagement are highly sensitive issues because many parents talk about feeling that they lack the skills to support their children with homework and revision. In fact, not a week passes without someone saying, “Blimey. You teach English. Please don’t ever look at any of my writing because I am not very good at all that punctuation stuff.” With this in mind, I want to reassure parents that there are many ways in which they can create a positive home learning environment and support their young people’s education.
When I hear another adult express anxiety about the quality of their writing, I explain that I am never going to pass judgement on such things, nor am I especially concerned with correctness in spelling and punctuation, at least not for its own sake. To be of value, accuracy has to have a purpose and that purpose is not determined by exam results or notions of immaculate correctness. Instead, the intention of writing is to achieve purposeful communication and accuracy ensures clarity. Knowing where to put an apostrophe is therefore important because punctuation creates precision and the ability to write fluently using vocabulary and punctuation to express feelings and opinions gives young people power in society. And this is absolutely vital for their identity, their confidence, and their future.
My work as a tutor is rooted in an awareness that the teenagers who have received GCSE results today will go on to become employees in a working environment that is more complicated than ever before. They will be required to communicate in a number of forms on a host of platforms using digital media, an array of software, video conferencing and artificial intelligence. To have any agency in this environment, they need basic literacy and numeracy skills so that they can understand employment contracts, emails, agendas, and digital finances.
With this in mind, I talk with all of my students - and to their families - about why English Language matters. GCSE mark schemes are not simply focused on ‘getting it right’. Instead they are organised into levels with descriptors that rank students’ work with the weakest writing having ‘persistent errors in spelling and punctuation’. These levels move from ‘persistent’ to ‘frequent errors’; then from ‘minor but regular errors’ to ‘mostly accurate’ before reaching the top band defined as ‘almost always accurate’. This level is where even the most literate of folk find themselves because anyone editing their work - including me - will find some errors that need correcting and it takes practice to be able to make adjustments to one’s own writing.
The crucial fact is persistent errors make it hard to read a piece of writing. Young people who cannot express themselves with clarity and purpose tend to avoid circumstances - personal and professional - that require written fluency and this places significant limitations on their lives. Avoidance of this sort tends to generate shame and low-self esteem, both of which cauterise students’ progress.
As an educator, I can address these issues by bull-dozing any stigma associated with asking for help, by removing social judgement, and by explaining why accuracy matters. I can also reassure young people and adults that is never too late to work on their reading and writing skills. With this in mind, I want to mention two remarkable families with whom I worked last year. These families requested shared tutoring sessions for their daughters. At the end of each session, the two girls and I were joined by their parents and their older and younger siblings for whole-team spelling tests. These tests began with everyone setting their own target score so that results were properly differentiated according to age, ability and educational needs. And then everyone sat around the kitchen table for a spelling adventure, which took place with a lots of shouting, masses of laughter and just a little bit of cheating from the mums (yes, I did see you squinting over your children’s shoulders!).
By taking part in spelling tests, these two families helped me to make literacy fun; they created a positive home learning environment in which it was safe to make mistakes; they demonstrated an active engagement with their children’s education, and they generously shared their spelling vulnerabilities without shame. With this sort of attitude - and with plenty of thoughtful, skilled support - it is possible to reach young people who experience obstacles to learning.