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  • Pity the poor pupils!

    Friday 20 August 2010

    Categories: Education, Media Influence, Teenagers

    The results are in. Emotions are high. Tears are flowing. Whether of despair or delight will depend on those 3 or 4, perhaps even 5, grades.

    This year’s cohort of applicants for university places faced a double whammy, those familiar twins – supply and demand. Students had not only the unknown demand of the new A* grade but also the increased supply caused by the exceptional number of students who failed to gain a place last year and reapplied this year. It seems that as many as 1 in 5 pupils who applied may not be setting off for uni this autumn. Whole households will be devastated as high hopes seem dashed and futures look bleak. It is some small comfort that there are many sources of wise advice, either on how to persevere through the clearing system or reminding that many high achieving adults have found that not having a degree was no bar to their success. I know, it’s all very well saying that failure is, or can be, the trigger for success but it takes a good few months or years for a heartbroken teenager to appreciate that.

    And what about those “happy few” who made the grade? The media, as usual, is banging on about grade inflation, how exams are easier and “fings ain’t what they used to be”. Guess what? They never were. The reasons for higher grades include the fact that students now work far harder than their parents ever did, after all so much more depends on their results nowadays. And their teachers work far harder too, poring over exam criteria so they can enable their charges to succeed. They teach them what hoops must be jumped through and how to jump high enough. Today pupil and teacher are united in taking on a system which is far more transparent and structured. Coursework, far from being a soft option, gives students the opportunity to research, to develop their knowledge then to deepen their understanding in ways that a 3 hour final paper never tested.

    Finally, is anyone really surprised that more A*s were awarded in, for example Further Maths than in Media Studies? Think about it…only the most able and most dedicated mathematicians could even attempt the former while students who opt for the latter tend to be those with a more practical rather than academic mind. QED…

    Posted by Alison Morris

Your comments

Once again the media coverage in advance of A level results day intensified the anxiety felt by the candidates, their families and their schools by suggesting that, this year for sure, those candidates who missed their offer grades by a narrow margin were likely to be rejected. I’m delighted to report that, in the school of which I am the Head, this wasn’t the case for most and, as in previous years, if our girls had fallen short of their offer by one or even two grades, the universities still accepted them. This is very good news for the girls who had worked hard and tried their best, and for the families who had supported and encouraged them. But it did irritate me that, once again, the media’s prophecies of doom and gloom had made the run up to results even more stressful than it inevitably is.

There is always a small number of students who don’t get where they hoped and they need, and get in our schools, considerable support to make arrangements with which they feel happy. But this year this number was considerably smaller than the press coverage had led us to believe.

Jill Berry
Head
Dame Alice Harpur School, Bedford

By J Berry on Wednesday 25 August 2010

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