By Barny Sandow, Head of School.
By Barny Sandow, Head of School
In the UK and around the world we are facing a mental health crisis, one that has been heavily exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic. In July 2021 it was estimated that one in six young people aged 5-16 in the UK were likely to have a mental health problem, a significant jump from the predicted one in nine young people in 2017.
The government has announced various initiatives to help alleviate the crisis and increase children’s mental health support so, why, at a time when wellbeing is such a priority, are young people still being put through the utterly unnecessary, pressure-cooker experience that is GCSEs?
As an educator who has taught GCSEs as well as alternative pathways, where students do not complete GCSEs but study a different curriculum often defined by the individual school, I have seen first-hand the damaging impact that the GCSE process can have on both students’ wellbeing and their academic performance. Already, anxiety is rising around this year’s exams – will they be cancelled or postponed last minute and my revision be wasted? Will I remember everything I need to? What if I get ill and miss the exam entirely?
The process of sitting down for GCSE exams is bad enough, in terms of causing stress and anxiety, but GCSEs are also enormously disruptive in the way they limit opportunities for students to find joy in their school work.
In most UK schools, almost an entire third of the year is taken up just on exam leave and sitting exams. This, in itself, is offensive enough, before you even start thinking about the fact that by placing such a heavy focus on preparing for examinations, we are restricting the vast potential of teachers to inspire children and spark their curiosity. In my career as an educator, I’ve found embedding real-life context to be highly successful in keeping students engaged with their learning and, most importantly, keeping them excited, motivated and happy. At ACS Cobham, unrestricted by the shackles of the GCSE curriculum, our teachers are able to set challenges that encourage children to find real solutions to the problems the world is facing.
The world of STEM is not just learning equations; it is building an electric car that could reshape our transport industry. Geography isn’t just textbooks and diagrams; it is looking deep into the environmental problems in the world around us and developing projects that address genuine issues of feeding a growing population.
By not teaching GCSEs, we have the flexibility of curriculum to run that thread of reality through learning. Importantly, we’re not tied to a set specification that is solely focussed on driving children to a standardised examination. This is very different in schools offering GCSEs; teachers are not able to follow children’s interests or current affairs or make links to real-world contexts. Instead of making learning enjoyable, teachers are forced to make it all about the regurgitation of facts and figures in a test. As a result of this, students are not just burnt out, they are bored, and this doesn’t benefit anyone. The entire concept of a General Certificate of Secondary Education is outdated; they were designed for a generation when the majority of children left school at 16. In today’s context, where young people are required to continue either education or training until they are 18, I simply do not believe they are needed.
ACS Cobham students go on to some of the best universities around the world, with more than 50% attending universities in the UK, without being hammered by an examination process at 16. So why is the UK government keeping up this system when it is clearly not conducive to good mental health or productivity?
Although all schools have questioned the value of GCSEs post-pandemic, nothing has changed because this is the way that things have always been done. But, as a country, can we imagine better?
Imagine a place where children look forward to going to school, pulled towards the kind of ideas they are excited to explore, rather than always being pushed to learn? I believe we can, but the GCSE curriculum is blocking the way.
