Reform to GCSE is nothing new. Educators have been calling for changes for some time but the pandemic has not only increased the desire to look at things in a new light but also shown how quickly changes can happen.
For Sarah Fletcher, High Mistress of St Paul's Girls' School in London, GCSEs have simply not kept up with the pace of change in the last thirty years. "I think the fundamental problem is that the world is now very different to the one that existed back in the 1980s."
Read MoreSurvey of students in England reveals huge disparities in effects of lockdown and school closures.
Children studying for exams and those from disadvantaged families are the most likely to have suffered severe disruption to their learning and motivation during the pandemic, according to the largest published study of its impact on pupils in England.
Read MoreIn Junior School, my daughter was introduced to: French, Spanish, German and Mandarin. In year 7, she was taught how to learn any language and spent a term learning: German, Russian and Mandarin. In year 8, she’s now being taught: Latin, German and Italian.
Read MoreCovid-19 crisis has allowed for a radical rethink of education system, says One Nation group.
The disruption caused by the coronavirus allows for a “radical” rethink of England’s school system, according to a group of Conservative MPs who advocate scrapping GCSEs, delaying the start of formal education and introducing longer school days.
A paper from the One Nation caucus of centrist Conservative MPs is the latest assault on GCSEs, arguing that England is unusual in making teenagers sit two sets of high-stakes exams within the space of three years, and that this is partly responsible for high levels of stress and unhappiness among pupils.
Read MoreDirectors are queueing up to work with the Welsh actor about to hit the big time in her first lead role, in acclaimed psychological thriller Saint Maud.
When Morfydd Clark was 16 years old, she crashed out of school. “After my GCSEs I just couldn’t go back,” she says. “I tried for a term but didn’t do any work and my mum said: ‘Why don’t you just drop out? There’s no point in being there if you’re going to be like this.’ So I spent a month in my pyjamas in my bedroom with the heating on, eating chocolates, and then she said: ‘Right, you’ve got to do something. You like acting, don’t you?’”
Read MoreSarah Fletcher, the high mistress of St Paul's Girls' School in London and a member of the HMC, offers thoughts on better ways young people can be assessed than out-dated GCSEs.
Everything has changed over the past few months.
We have put students from across the world in the same classrooms, safeguarded new ways of working and shared resources and online platforms.
Most extraordinary of all, teachers have helped in the awarding of grades and we have cancelled all assessments from key stage 1 to key stage 5.
Imagining the unimaginable is something we should do more often! And what better place to start than with the curriculum?
Read MoreA coalition of private and state schools is expected to launch a campaign to end GCSEs, as growing numbers of schools look at alternatives to the exams following the summer algorithm debacle.
Eton, Bedales, St Paul’s girls’ school, Latymer upper school and several substantial academy chains have been joined by Margaret Thatcher’s education secretary, Kenneth Baker, who created GCSEs, to discuss proposals for replacing the exam system.
The group, Rethinking Assessments, is likely to launch a formal campaign in the next few weeks, forcing ministers into a battle for control of school qualifications.
Read More‘Some form of examination’ needed for students to feel system is fair, Roger Taylor says.
Roger Taylor has said it was a "fundamental mistake" to believe the public would get behind this year's grading system.
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