Saturday, October 30, 2010
The Strange Death of Secondary History
'BEST EVER!' 'OUTSTANDING!', 'BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT!' As soon as the GCSE results are published the spin doctors employed by local councils put a positive gloss on them. Due to high stakes testing and league tables some schools have dropped more 'difficult' subjects like History in favour of 'easier' subjects like Leisure and Tourism. Nationally numbers of pupils taking GCSE History fell from 35.7% in 1997 to 29.9% in 2009.
The lowest figure in the whole country was for Knowsley, only 16 per cent studied History at GCSE and only 4.3% at 'A' Level. No surprise there, everyone knew how under pressure Heads manipulated test results. This is also reflected in other subjects like Modern Foreign Languages.
Just 18% of those eligible for free school meals studied History compared to 32% who don't recieve that benefit.
The stark reality is that some secondary schools promote a wide range of subjects for their children to choose from. In other schools, due to pressure for test results, there is a restrictive, narrow curriculum mainly based on vocational subjects. Reminds me a bit of grammar and secondary modern schools.
Labels: History
It's just so much s**t
my god i can't wait to get out
no wonder so many parents want to send their children to private school
or a grammar school if they can
you see a grammar school gets results so they don't have to buy into the 5 part lesson peer assessment investigative (loads of time wasting) learning stuff
what do you mean i've not used capitals n stuff this is the new langwich
its hartbrakin stuff isn it n its gonna get wors becoz if yor kid iz ina state scool 2 many tick-box ofstedas r gonna b in charge
they pay atenshun 2 the paymasta n not wat they no is rite
etc etc etc
I used to love teaching but not any more as you may have gathered.
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