TES: Why we must scrap GCSEs: 4 ways to form a better system

Sarah 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?

The Guardian: Private and state schools bid to kill off GCSEs

A 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.

Simon Singh: The Maths Masterclass Tutorials (Year 8 & Year 11)

NB Parents can nominate children. Please see the rules at the bottom of this page.

The Maths Masterclass Tutorials are an intense programme of FREE online Maths tuition designed to stretch and challenge the very best young mathematicians

Following the huge success of our pilot in May, we are now scaling up to a year-long FREE programme. The Maths Masterclass Tutorials programme is delivered by TalentEd in partnership with best-selling author Dr. Simon Singh.

The Times: I’m a graduate. There are no jobs since Covid for me

I never thought I’d hear myself say those words: I want to receive a rejection email. I want to be told that on this occasion I have been unsuccessful; that after careful consideration we will not be continuing your application. Because at least then I know.

With unemployment rates continuing to rise, it is young people who are being hit hardest by the coronavirus job crisis. Jobs are like gold dust, the applicant/position ratio is ever-growing, and many companies are failing to inform applicants of their unsuccess. This leaves you deflated, tired and obsessively checking your junk mail.

A 23-year-old, class of 2019 graduate, I moved to London in February, excited by the prospect of starting a career and creating a new home. I started off with high hopes, and a cushion of savings to get me through the initial couple of months.

The Guardian: The 'serendipity mindset': how to make your own luck

Seeing meaning in the unexpected can help turn mistakes into opportunities, says researcher Dr Christian Busch.

See something in the unexpected and connect the dots.

The Times: Brighton girl, 7, climbs the Alps on her holidays

As the youngest person to climb Kilimanjaro, seven-year-old Ashleen Mandrick may have earned a break but during the summer holidays she just carried on climbing, this time up the Alps.

Last month the British schoolgirl ascended 4,400 metres to the Colle del Parrot on Monte Rosa, located on Italy’s border with Switzerland, becoming what is thought to be the youngest person to climb the Alps’ second-highest mountain. She was joined on the adventure by her brother Nicolas, 12, and her mother Victoria, 46, a doctor.

The Times: Fears grow as teachers die weeks into new school year

United States
Teachers in at least three states have died after contracting coronavirus since the start of the new school year, with teachers’ unions concerned that the return to in-person classes will have a deadly effect across the country if proper precautions are not taken.

AshLee DeMarinis, 34, who taught social skills at a school in Missouri, died on Sunday after three weeks in hospital. A third-grade teacher died on Monday in South Carolina, and two other teachers died in Mississippi. It is not clear how many teachers have become ill with Covid-19 since the school year began but Mississippi has reported 604 cases among school teachers and staff.

The Times: Statistics teach us to be sceptical about ‘Operation Moonshot’

Covid maths/statistics.

Did you get the all clear in your daily cancer check this week? Of course you did not have one. Even after decades of trying it has proved extremely difficult to find regular tests that do not do more harm than good by wrongly telling healthy people they are ill. These basic statistics explain why scientists are very sceptical about Boris Johnson’s “Operation Moonshot”.

Independent: Ofqual suggests online exams could be option next summer in wake of this year’s grading chaos

‘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.

Guardian: ‘I do not see a single student wash their hands': teacher’s diary of the first week back at school

My 12 year old is back on the tube school. We have to trust that she will be sensible and do the right thing. Her school have very detailed instructions and have created year bubbles. They spend the last 5mins of each lesson cleaning their desks etc.

Guardian: Covid symptoms: diarrhoea and vomiting may be key sign of coronavirus in children – study

Interestingly, a few days before I started to suffer from Covid symptoms (19th March), my 12 year old daughter complained that she felt nauseous. We assumed she might be suffering from a little anxiety, caused by the virus’s spread and her potentially being over tired. I took her into school late on the Tuesday (11am), school closed 4pm on the Wednesday, to start remote lessons on the following Monday and I started to get sick on the Thursday.

Did she catch Covid and pass on to me? We still don’t quite know. I donated blood plasma and now know that I have antibodies, although sadly not high enough to donate again. My husband and daughter have not yet been tested.

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