To think GCSE are wrong for many kids

[Mountainsuccess]

I see the level of parental involvement and stress many parents go through when the kids are doing GCSES.

I think if there is so much parental involvement needed surely GCSES are not the right thing for many kids. The number of exams and pressure is completely crazy for a 15/16 year old. Do they actually remember anything after the exams? Or is the UK education system just an exam factory?

The government put so much pressure on schools and schools on teachers, parents, kids. It is just all about results. I feel there is so much micromanaging from the government. Why is this? Why the Government doesn’t trust teachers and parents? Is this ever going to change? Isn’t this supposed to be an advanced country?

Please enlighten me. I am not English but raising kids here.

The problem with teacher assessments is that they are often not very objective.

I still find peculiar how early English system stops with general education and starts specialising in a very small number of subjects.

In my country being academic means studying all basic subjects until adulthood, while studying higher level in four subjects each student selects for the final exams.

It allows to properly introduce complex topics at the age when people are more able to get it than ever before - I did mostly science for my final exams, but spending 90 minutes a week at history of 20th century, social science and literature as a 17 yo was more import for my life than potentially getting even deeper in the subjects I studied later at the university.

Less academic path stops the full range of subjects a year or two earlier in favour of skills and work experience, but still keeps a bit (language &literature, 1 foreign language and standard math).

"less wordy" - do we not expect people to be able to understand and interpret sentences that explain mathematical details? If we remove it, I'd be worried we'd be dumbing down the qualification.

EttesEttes, 'less wordy' means fewer words. So, if the exam is testing functional maths, omitting narrative about Dylan baking a cake or getting a bus and just presenting the mathematical problem to be solved.

This would be useful for children in the early stages of learning English, those who are dyslexic and/or have some neurodivergence, and/or those who get anxious in exams.

I would agree with you if all of the questions made sense.
Many of them are designed to trip up students.

Tone deaf again students with Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorder are disadvantaged despite being very capable.

Given that we know that a lot of parents in some countries put enormous amount of pressure on their children to achieve highly in education (mainly in south East Asia, I believe) what is the mental health of these children like? What is the suicide rate?

What happens to children who aren't academically brilliant enough to achieve 14 GCSEs?

My.partner is American, as I suspect you are, and feels the same. I have to say, he knew a lot less at that age than UK counterparts and you consequently have to do and extra year of degree where you get spoonfed a bit and which costs a great deal. There also big issues of parents arguing for better grades in the school.system there because of the importance of teacher judgement.

It is widely agreed that there are too many exams per subject at GCSE. The stakes and competition also seem a lot higher than when I sat them but then parental involvement in children's lives is similarly way higher than it used to be. Be careful that you are making a comparison with how things actually are now in your own country as things have changed everywhere.

So I partly agree with you. I think testing is the right way but it needs scaling back and somehow the stakes reducing a little.

@User5667887765544331 But not as capable as others in a wider sense. There is a need to differentiate.

There were a couple of young neurodiverse kids on my DS Btec course who always struggled with reading comprehension but are at the start of a great career doing a tech apprenticeship. How is that not as capable as others? Yes there needs to be differentiation to make life easier to draw on strengths.

I must congratulate you on your outstanding parenting of your amazingly bright, talented children.
I mean, what did you hope to achieve on a thread about young people struggling with their GCSEs by boasting about how incredibly intelligent your children are? Hmm?
Your post is extremely tone deaf.
Read the room.
ikr

Arguably achieving top grades in GCSEs is not a signifier of high intelligence, many of average intelligence can achieve it, it's all about understanding the mark schemes, memorising, revising. I'd argue that the most intelligent can feel frustrated with the system. This is why I asked @EttesEttes what grades her offspring achieved in uni. Also GCSEs today are not comparable with what they were 10 years ago.

2.1/merit for one. First class and distinction for the other.

GCSEs are a nightmare for some. The pressure to get 4s in maths and English for some kids is so stressful. And 30% of kids are forced to re-take with really poor results.

When I was a teacher 20 years ago there were more 'equivalent' alternatives alongside of GCSEs but Gove got rid of more vocational options for the 14-16 year old cohort and it's increased stress.

Additionally introducing numbers really devalues the grade around 6s - a B used to be a brilliant grade but now some kids feel like they've failed in the education arms race.