GCSEs

GCSEs in Italian and Polish are to be assessed digitally in England from 2026, with plans to move at least one large-entry subject such as English to partial digital assessment by the end of the decade, a major exam board has…

Private schools want to opt out of GCSE exams because state schools in England are catching up with their results, the government’s former social mobility tsar Katharine Birbalsingh has said.Commenting on moves by Latymer upper school in…

Pupils whose families turned to food banks during the pandemic fared worse at GCSE than expected, losing half a grade per subject on average, according to a study.Researchers said pupils’ grades were lower, even after taking into account…

I was interested to read about the proposals of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change for the reform of education in England (Scrap GCSEs and A-levels, says Tony Blair Institute in call for ‘radical reform’, 23 August). Would this be…

GCSEs and A-levels should be scrapped in favour of a system that better prepares school-leavers for the workplace, a report has suggested.The study conducted by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) has recommended that the…

More pupils will fail their GCSEs this year and top grades are expected to fall as results return to pre-pandemic levels, an education expert has predicted.There could be 230,000 fewer top grades in the UK compared with 2021, but 230,000…

Teachers in England have observed high levels of anxiety among pupils in the run-up to GCSEs and A-levels, with reports of panic attacks, angry outbursts, self-harm and disengagement among students who will be the first to sit examinations…

Look out for signs of stress“I think the first thing is about being aware,” says Dr Dan O’Hare, the vice-chair of the British Psychological Society’s division of education and child psychology. “Are they more irritable than usual? If they…

Sitting exams using pen and paper could soon be a thing of the past, as England’s qualifications regulator, Ofqual, said it is exploring technology to transform the way GCSEs and A-levels are administered.The regulator’s latest corporate…

Multi-academy trusts and other groups of schools in England and Wales should be measured on whether they exclude or off-roll vulnerable pupils, education experts have suggested.A paper from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) suggests that…