Nearly 5,000 higher tier GCSE science pupils awarded ‘safety net’ grade

Janet Downs's picture
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Schools’ fault says Ofsted

4,700 pupils who took the higher tier reformed GCSE combined science exam in 2018 were awarded a ‘safety net’ grade 3 to avoid receiving an unclassified grade.

The fault, says Ofsted, lies with schools.  They ‘may have entered pupils for the higher tier in science when the foundation may have been more appropriate’.

It’s unclear how teachers faced with an unknown exam with no previous papers, no trialling and no evaluation could have accurately predicted which pupils could safely be entered for higher tier (grades 9-4) or lower tier (grades 5-1).  This problem isn’t just confined to science but to all other reformed subjects.

Perhaps teachers will be more careful in future, Ofsted implies.  The safety net is unlikely to be applied again.

GCSEs were supposed to be harder to tackle grade inflation

Reformed GCSEs, remember, were supposed to be harder.  This suggests pupils would receive lower grades than previously.  GCSEs were reformed, we were told, to tackle grade inflation.

But ‘GCSE results have remained stable in recent years and this trend continued this year,’ said Ofsted in its School Inspection update.  

This suggests that the hastily-introduced reformed GCSEs haven’t achieved their stated goals.  Instead, grade boundaries have been lowered and a safety net applied.  

DfE can still boast success

This won’t stop the DfE, and schools minister Nick Gibb in particular, from trumpeting that reformed GCSEs are a success.  They will bring England in line with the most successful countries in the three-yearly PISA tests, we are told.  But most countries don’t have such high-stakes exams at 16.

Any sensible exam reform would have moved to graduation at 18 via multiple routes.  This would have avoided unnecessary upheaval at 16 and the sleights-of-hand we are now witnessing to keep exam pass rates stable.

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