100% to take the English baccalaureate.

[muddycoffee]

If more than 10% are special needs, then 90% do not have the ability to get six GCSEs .l.

Common sense would suggest that the 90% mentioned for this target would exclude anyone who was "Special Needs" as you term it.

 

It really sounds like School children nowadays get a much better deal than the Chaos I endured in the 1980s at Chaucer as a pupil. There were occasions where the teachers entered me for CSE instead of O level and one time I paid extra to be entered for both exams and the teacher "forgot", apologised, gave me the money back and I wasn't entered for either.

[Anna B]

Irrespective, I insist on her taking and excelling at every topic under the sun, so she'll be prepared come-what-examination-format-may

 

An excellent approach in many ways, and I'm sure it's backed up with your full encouragement and support. But some kids simply do not have the capacity to excel in every subject, and find the pressure insurmountable.

[L00b]

An excellent approach in many ways, and I'm sure it's backed up with your full encouragement and support. But some kids simply do not have the capacity to excel in every subject, and find the pressure insurmountable.

Both the capacity to excel (I posted and meant that glibly in relative terms btw: I don't expect many kids to be able to truly 'excel' at everything under the sun, that be prodigies and geniuses...with their own behavioural/social/etc. quirks ) and the capacity to 'cope with' the 'pressure' associated with the academic environment, workload and achievements, are inextricably linked with nurturing.

 

Which is a task incumbent to the parent(s) and the teacher(s) in different, both respective and combined, ways.

 

There is still no magic bullet in 2015: if you want a bright and happy kid comfortable with academic work and learning, you need to work at it ('work it in', really) constantly both at home and with the teachers, right from day one of kindergarten. You can't leave it all to the school, or to the kid. I don't expect this truism has changed much over the past decades, if not longer.

 

After that, examination formats can come and go, but shouldn't really matter in the grand scheme of things: at the end of the day, they still test substantially the same knowledge and skills, refreshed/updated as needed over time.

 

In the knowledge economy which the 1st world has, and is still, becoming, raising the academic bar should really not come as a surprise. To get nearer the higher end of the totem pole, most professionals face significantly more difficult aptitude/professional exams (that, in terms of 'pressure', make GCSE/Bacalauréate exams a walk in the park all things considered and in relative terms) and career-long ongoing mandatory CPD requirements: the learning and testing never stops nowadays.

Edited November 4, 2015 by L00b

[El Cid]

Common sense would suggest that the 90% mentioned for this target would exclude anyone who was "Special Needs" as you term it.

 

 

The article from the BBC says ALL children should do the new GSCEs, but that equates to 90% if you take account of SEN.

but what about those in the bottom classed that are not SEN? I was in class 3/4 out of 8, and I consider myself to be better off learning none academic stuff.

[Anna B]

Both the capacity to excel (I posted and meant that glibly in relative terms btw: I don't expect many kids to be able to truly 'excel' at everything under the sun, that be prodigies and geniuses...with their own behavioural/social/etc. quirks ) and the capacity to 'cope with' the 'pressure' associated with the academic environment, workload and achievements, are inextricably linked with nurturing.

 

Which is a task incumbent to the parent(s) and the teacher(s) in different, both respective and combined, ways.

 

There is still no magic bullet in 2015: if you want a bright and happy kid comfortable with academic work and learning, you need to work at it ('work it in', really) constantly both at home and with the teachers, right from day one of kindergarten. You can't leave it all to the school, or to the kid. I don't expect this truism has changed much over the past decades, if not longer.

 

After that, examination formats can come and go, but shouldn't really matter in the grand scheme of things: at the end of the day, they still test substantially the same knowledge and skills, refreshed/updated as needed over time.

 

In the knowledge economy which the 1st world has, and is still, becoming, raising the academic bar should really not come as a surprise. To get nearer the higher end of the totem pole, most professionals face significantly more difficult aptitude/professional exams (that, in terms of 'pressure', make GCSE/Bacalauréate exams a walk in the park all things considered and in relative terms) and career-long ongoing mandatory CPD requirements: the learning and testing never stops nowadays.

 

No really, I agree with you. High expectation is very important, as is a nurturing environment, and a real partnership with the school. I'm sure your children will do well.

[Cyclone]

They aren't in any way new are they?

 

---------- Post added 04-11-2015 at 10:53 ----------

 

I was in class 3/4 out of 8, and I consider myself to be better off learning none academic stuff.

 

You might consider yourself better off, but I doubt it's actually true.

[Anna B]

They aren't in any way new are they?

 

---------- Post added 04-11-2015 at 10:53 ----------

 

 

You might consider yourself better off, but I doubt it's actually true.

 

Was that directed at my comment? If so you're right, they are not new, never said they were, and every teacher knows how important they are.

 

However the constant government meddling in education just detracts time and effort that teachers should be putting into teaching.

[Cyclone]

It was directed at the post directly before yours where El Cid again referenced "the new GCSEs".

[El Cid]

It was directed at the post directly before yours where El Cid again referenced "the new GCSEs".

 

Prior to this new diktat coming from Westminster, maths, english, science, PE and RE were the only compulsory lessons.