Post-16 Education and the new GCSE Grades

Good news for students but another example of DfE incompetence in the introduction of new GCSEs. https://www.tes.com/news/school-news...5-4-dfe-u-turn

They had the same tweaking the first year GCSE's replaced O-levels. It's kind of inevitable I guess. 

I have taught English as a foreign language in comprehensive schools, Russia, for three years. Here are a few of my thoughts...

Grading in education can be a touching subject. The stringent structure is much more liable to subjectivity of the teacher, which makes it more difficult to directly compare pupil performance.

Schools in Scotland, for instance, are now moving away from the Standard Grade system. The four-point system is one of the most recognised grading scaling in the United States, 0 being the lowest and 4 being the highest possible score. In Russia, pupils are mainly exposed to one system, the five-point system. Although any mark from 5 to 1 is officially accepted, the latter is used less commonly. 

The E-S-N-U System can be found sometimes in lower grades of state secondaries, introducing a more 'playful' approach to younger children, but not much beyond third grade usually.

Don't forget about the eleven-point system with letter grading or even a 12-point grading scale, adding A+ at the top. This is tedious but it does provide an absolute calibration for me, 'cream skimming' the brightest kids when they join year nine or higher.

Please note that marking is best seen as a dialogue between you and the pupil. Grade descriptors or comment-based marking provide you with this dialogue and can help to enthuse them. Even more, comment-based marking helps you to formulate your positive response.

Also of note, English teacher's red-pen response can spoil everything!