Great GCSE Results on the way!

Another year and we are promised more great GCSE results on Thursday from secondary schools across the country along with the associated cries about standards falling as more and more young people achieve A and A* grades.

As I have said many times before we can't afford to be complacent especially when you look at the international comparisons! We need to see what the national picture looks like particulatly in areas like English, mathematics and science and we need to see how much we have closed the gap between the best and the worst performers and we need to look at the results for groups and individuals to see the impact of our more targeted work with looked after children, children on free school meals and other under-achieving groups.

What we know is that whatever Thursday brings we are not doing well enough an our young people are falling further and further behind young people in the far east. We need a fundamental rethink about what we teach and how we teach with a strong focus on learning, growth and development. We need to build character, develop basic skills early and develop higher level skills as young people get older. We need to develop enterprise and project-based learning through a curriculum that connects powerfully with the world of work.

Chris