If you are teaching Maths in FE then resits are very close to your heart.
Students now have to continue to study Maths if they haven’t achieved a grade C in Maths when they move to post-16 education. If they get a D they have to do GCSE and below a D they have to be on a qualification that is “working towards” a GCSE which is usually Functional Skills (apprenticeships are a different matter as I found out this week). It’s a mess! I don’t mean post-16 colleges are a mess, I mean the implications of forcing students to resit quals having not achieved some arbitrary “standard” – the way GCSE grades are awarded means that by the very nature (its a zero-sum game) there WILL ALWAYS be students that require resits. The numbers of students involved as a result of this change has boomed and FE/Post 16 are facing similar issues as schools in terms of finances and also recruitment of teaching staff.
Matters will only get worse under the new 9-1 GCSE and when the “good” pass period of grace passes in terms of conditions of funding – basically funding will still be given if a student gets a grade 4 for a period of 2 years. That said, lots of colleges are still going to insist on students resitting to try to get a 5 and universities are yet to put their head above the parapet and make it clear what their entry requirements will be for GCSE English and Maths. The fact is the number of students getting a good pass is going to drop (a 5 is going to be set a C and 2/3, so comparing todays “good” pass of a C to the new 5 means that fewer students will attain this standard) and not because teaching at secondary is any worse but because the bar has been raised.
However, some sense was seen and an additional legacy sitting of the A*-G GCSE was agreed so that students have an opportunity to resit the old GCSE in November 2016 and also Summer 2017. This is FACT, despite the Ofqual timeline still being incorrect as of todays date! They have been in touch with me following my blogpost and are investigating but I still think it is a poor show! Government websites SHOULD be the one place we can rely on for factually correct information but once again we have been let down!
Anyway, I thought I’d signpost some free CPD that some of you may be interested in at the University of Gloucester on Saturday 8th October. It promises to be good! Interested? Email: Mathsresits@glos.ac.uk
Thanks for this! And the CPD is local to me so very helpful.
My youngest, and ironically most numerate son, had a major wobble and ‘achieved’ an E for GCSE. He went on to college to do Plastering and there had to do the functional skills you mention. This obliterated what was left of his interest in school maths entirely. It was soul destroying for him; turgid, uninteresting and contrived. Those who don’t achieve the benchmark grade are not by definition idiots and it is wrong to bore them into submission. My son’s attitude similarly served to drive his tutor crazy, double edged sword!!
We need a different solution post 16 IMO … I don’t know what it is. But what we do today doesn’t fit the bill 😔
I agree, we do need something different. The college where I work have enrolled D’s and E’s on to GCSE Legacy Maths which has resulted in a much bigger cohort that don’t want to be there! We have also allowed anyone who gained an E grade at school, the opportunity to sit GCSE Legacy Maths even when the E grade was achieved more than a year ago. These students have had a year, or more, at Functional Skills and are now being expected to pick up their mathematical skills to sit in summer 2017. As the previous comment stated, something needs to be done, but what?
I’m not sure I have the answers either. 🤔
I don’t understand why the exam boards don’t offer a ‘pre GCSE’ qualification which is a level 1 qualification – but using the same format as gcse papers but say with grades 1-3 (new spec). It make no sense to study gcse at school then switch to functional skills (a completely different format and set of skills) and then switch back to gcse format when achieved level 1. Why has no one sorted this?
It wouldn’t be down to the exam boards to do something like this … assessment is laid out by the DFE I’m afraid and what we end up with at the coalface is as the result of consultations.