Parent Forum Monday 1 st December The future of the public exam system

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1 The future of the public exam system

2 In the next few years there will be changes to each of the following: A levels GCSEs IGCSEs In addition, some schools may use the changes as a prompt to consider alternatives to A levels, such as the IB or the Pre-U We will look at these changes and the implications for students in each year group at KEGS

3 A levels current system Currently, all A levels are structured into modules with some modules designated as AS and some as A2 The AS modules can be cashed in to get an AS level, and then re-used with the A2 modules to get a full A level (there are some minor exceptions to how this works in Maths). Until recently, large numbers of module resits were possible, but now modules are only available in the Summer, making it impossible under normal circumstances to resit an exam more than once.

4 A levels changes brought in under Michael Gove: Besides the clamp down on module resits in the current A levels, the previous Education Secretary caused new A level specifications to be written across all subjects. Some A level subjects will be discontinued. The new specifications decouple AS and A level: AS still exists but it will be a stand alone exam which does not contribute marks to the full A level. It is intended that AS can be taught alongside the first part of A level, but this may or may not be easy in some subjects.

5 A levels timescale: First teaching Sept 2015 (current Year 11) includes: Sciences, Art, Economics, History, English First teaching Sept 2016 (current Year 10) includes: Maths, Further Maths, French, German, Latin, Geography, DT, Theatre Studies, Music, PE First teaching Sept 2017 (current Year 9) or discontinued includes: Geology, Politics, Philosophy, Electronics

6 A levels other factors: The Labour Party has announced that they will scrap all the A level reforms should they win the next election Cambridge University has announced that it encourages schools to enter students for the new AS exams in Year 12. However, they appear to be alone in this, perhaps because they have put so much stress on exact mark scores in AS as part of their current selection process KEGS already uses the Pre-U for English (and the optional GPR), and it is very likely that we will move to the Pre-U in History as well, as a result of the A level reforms

7 GCSEs and IGCSEs current system: Michael Gove encouraged state schools to use IGCSEs (seen as more traditional or academically rigorous ). These had historically only been used by international or private schools. IGCSEs which state schools can use are branded as Level 1/Level 2 certificates The current system is therefore a mixture of the GCSEs and IGCSEs, with an incredibly complex set of rules governing what qualifications count for what Government league table measures when e.g. the Science IGCSEs we use counted in 2013, but didn t in 2014; won t count in 2015 but will in 2016; will count in 2017 but won t in The exam meanwhile remains the same!

8 GCSEs changes brought in under Michael Gove: The previous Education Secretary wanted a return to traditional terminal assessment (as opposed to coursework or controlled assessment). He also wanted more rigour. New GCSE specifications have accordingly been developed. These do have some similarities to the current IGCSE type qualifications (which KEGS uses in Science, Geography, Latin, Music, French and German). To help distinguish them, the new GCSEs will be graded 9 to 1, with grade 9 being above a current A* grade.

9 GCSEs timescale: First teaching Sept 2015 (current Year 9): Maths, English Language, English Literature First teaching Sept 2016 (current Year 8) includes: Geography, History, Sciences, MFL, Latin, RE, DT, Drama, Art, Music, PE, Computer Science First teaching Sept 2017 (current Year 7) or discontinued includes: Statistics However KEGS early entry policy means that those taking French/German in Year 9 and Statistics in Year 10 will only move to the new GCSE with effect from the current Year 6. And those taking RE in Year 10 will only move to the new GCSE with effect from the current Year 7. Every current KEGS student will get at least some old style GCSEs/IGCSEs

10 GCSEs KEGS position: Although IGCSEs are likely to remain in some form, we have decided to move all subjects to the new GCSEs as soon as they are available for the relevant year groups.

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