Will you be keen for your child to gain the new Bacc?

[LornMowa]

Apparently Mr Gove will be publishing new league tables in January.

community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/452578.aspx?PageIndex=1

Options at My Dss selective independent secondary mean that all the children there will get it. I couldn't believe it when I read that only 16% of the national cohort do so currently.

Acanthus - isn't it the international Bacc that the independent schools do?

I agree that that is a very high quality qualification.

The English Bacc however is new and unproven and I would prefer to see more of a track record before committing my DCs to it.

"The English Bacc however is new and unproven and I would prefer to see more of a track record before committing my DCs to it."

From the info given on the TES site, it would appear that a child just has to choose the "right" combination of GCSEs. I think Gove is trying to encourage more children to take at least double science, a humanity and a MFL.

It is just an encouragement to schools to go back to traditional subjects - i.e. MFL to GCSE level, History or Geography not a general Humanities course.

Well my two DD's would have it already and so will DS (non selective school) so I am amazed at the 16% as well.

Yes but I would like to see if employers/ admissions people at universities understand it first.

The international Bacc had some problems at first on that front but seems to have bedded in now.

This English Bacc isn't a new qualification, is is the government borrowing the name of a well-respected qualification to describe a certain combination of GCSEs (IIRC, maths, english, a language, a science and a humanity)

OK so just a bit of a con really.

I do believe a return to "trad" subjects is appropriate, especially for students aiming at university.

But this measure is incredibly narrow.

At many schools they can only choose 3 options, and if they want to do separate sciences that counts as one choice.

So if you did triple science, you couldn't get the bacc if you wanted to do: 2 languages; or an arts subject (art or music ..); or one tech subject.

I agree with roisin. The definition is too strict to really reflect a quality well rounded education. The requirement of a MFL also dismisses some of the SEN students from being able to attain this.

I would prefer to see a set of traditional subjects where 3 grade C passes were required in addition to E and M and a maximum of one Arts subject (Music, Art Design etc) could also be included from the list.

Wild horses wouldn't make me vote Conservative, but I think the idea of the English Bac is a good one. Pupils won't need to take any extra qualification, but it will credit them for a certain combination of subjects. I don't actually think it's been devised for the pupils' benefit, but to highlight those schools achieving high GCSE rates in league tables by entering pupils for NVQs and modular exams, etc.

If you look at the BBC league tables, they show the percentage of pupils achieving "C" in at least two sciences and a MFL, so the EB will be very similar. You can take it or leave it, but (for me) it's important how many pupils achieve GCSEs in sciences and a MFL.

What is really screwy though is the schools are the ones being blamed for entering students for non traditional courses. It's the Governments push in investment of Diplomas and the over-grading of some OCR/BTEC's (where you can get 2x or 4x GCSE credit for study of the same amount of time as 1 x traditional GCSE) that has caused this problem. The loss of MFL has come from the Government making it non mandatory and the cohort sitting now tend to be the more able and the pass thresholds are becoming more difficult as a result. No wonder the children go for a non-traditional route!