GCSEs

Why was a finals student disqualified for criticising halal meat?

20 August 2019 12:12 am

We have to talk about the schoolgirl who was disqualified from a GCSE exam on the grounds that she had…

An inconvenient truth: white children are underperforming everyone else in UK schools

2 February 2019 9:00 am

The Department for Education (DfE) published its finalised data on the 2018 GCSE results last week, revealing that, for the…

Genetics and the truth about private schools

31 March 2018 9:00 am

A paper published last week in an academic journal called npj Science of Learning attracted an unusual amount of press…

Hard lessons

26 August 2017 9:00 am

George Tomlinson, the post-war education secretary, declared that politicians should leave exams to the teachers because ‘the minister knows nowt…

As easy as 1, 2, 3…

26 August 2017 9:00 am

The amount of nonsense being talked about the new GCSEs in English and maths, whereby exams have been graded 9-1…

Parents, not schools, are key to the knowledge gap

5 August 2017 9:00 am

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has just published a report looking at the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged 16-year-olds…

What happens when they’ve climbed the ladder?

The lessons of exam results season (and what to do about them)

29 August 2015 9:00 am

Every year without fail, as the trees start thinking about losing their leaves, the papers are full of the same…

James McAvoy is wrong – the arts are better off without subsidy

14 March 2015 9:00 am

The season of cringe-making acceptance speeches at arts awards ceremonies is nearly over, thank heavens. But it hasn’t passed without…

What are 16-year-olds supposed to learn by making posters?

25 October 2014 9:00 am

My niece, Lara, 15, has a mind like a surgical blade. On any subject, from calculus to The X Factor,…

My tax avoidance tip – win literary prizes!

17 May 2014 9:00 am

David Cameron is said to want a woman to be chairman of the BBC Trust, now that Chris Patten has…