sábado, 3 de septiembre de 2011

Third of GCSEs taken at private schools graded A* - Telegraph.co.uk

Some 99.5 per cent of exams sat at the fee-paying school were at least an A and almost eight-in-10 scored an A*.

Tim Hands, the school's master, put its success down to a rigorous focus on the "basics", insisting it did not allow "children's eyes to be taken off the ball by the frills and thrills of the educational experiment".

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he criticised the constant "political meddling" in GCSEs, saying changes imposed by successive Governments were holding some schools back.

The pace of reform seen in recent years has distracted teachers and made it almost impossible for employers to compare standards from year to year, he claimed.

Recent changes include a decision to scrap GCSE coursework and moves to axe modular tests in favour of a straight two-year course with one exam at the end.

"I am opposed to constant change in the examination system," he said.

"If you are going to find out how well schools and young people are performing, you must have a constant set of measurements.

"How can a classroom teacher operate properly and get good results if the goalposts are constantly being moved?"

According to figures, seven out of the top 10 schools in the league table this year were all-girl.

Last week, it emerged that girls were pulling ahead of boys nationally, prompting claims that the education system was letting boys down.

But the table shows that the top two schools – Magdalen College and Westminster School – exclusively educate boys up the age of 16, while admitting girls into the sixth-form.

Dr Hands said any focus on gender as an explanation for different results was a "sideshow".

"The assumption that a particular problem must be a 'boy issue' or a 'girl issue' is nonsense," he said. "It is sideshow that holds up real progress.

"The basis of us getting good results is focusing on the pastoral needs of the individual.

"The minute you start thinking in generic terms about their gender, rather than the individual, it is going to be harmful."

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