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The ONLY weekly voice for secondary education Inside this issue


It was a friend’s birthday party, everyone was drunk and we were just having fun. I was tagged in the album of another guest. To say I wanted the ground to swallow me up is an understatement. I felt utterly humiliated


This quote from an NQT shows the terrible and devastating impact that pupils accessing teachers' social media profiles can have. An article offering NQTs advice in this area is just one of a raft of features in SecEd's regular eight- page NQT special this week, which has been produced in association with the NASUWT. Pages 16 to 23


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and Twitter Thousands of teachers are reading SecEddigital, a virtual edition of SecEd, which is emailed out every week. You can sign up for free by emailing editor@sec-ed.co.uk. SecEd news and features are now also available on Twitter. You can follow us at www. twitter.com/SecEd_Education


Calls for GCSEs to be taken at age 14


by Dorothy Lepkowska


Pupils should sit GCSEs, or an equivalent qualification, at the age of 14 to give them an idea of what study and career paths to choose in the latter stages of secondary school, a report recommended this week. The study, carried out for the


Sutton Trust, an educational char- ity, found that Britain was one of very few countries in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) that did not have clear pathways for students in the later years of schooling. It said that the government


should make 14 to 19 education “a reality” by moving and adapt- ing GCSEs to become the national examination for pupils two years earlier than they currently sit them. “This would then become the


natural starting point for an array of awards taking young people in different directions. If these were sufficiently attractive, young people would want to stay on for as long as it took to gain a qualification and there would be no need for the sticks necessary to impose compul- sory staying on,” the study said. The report, carried out by


Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson of the Centre for Education and Employment at the University of Buckingham, said that while such a move might be a step too far for any British government, clearer educational options at 14 would particularly benefit young- sters from non-privileged back- grounds to pursue the choices that reflect their abilities and interests. The authors found that 26 of


the 30 OECD countries had clear pathways for young people beyond the age of 14, which might include heading for university, doing some


sort of vocational training or prepa- ration for employment. By contrast the system in England provided teenagers with an “untidy mix” of options. The publication of the report


coincided with the announcement by Michael Gove, the education secretary, of plans to end the modu- larisation of GCSE in favour of a single exam at the end of the study period. The plans are expected to be included in the education White Paper due out this week. Mr Gove said: “Instead of


GCSEs being split into bite-sized elements, we think it’s important that at the end of the GCSE course, the student should be examined on everything they have learnt at one time. So we’ll have fewer exams but a concentration on a more rigor- ous approach at age 16.” Professor Smithers told SecEd


that the current system of testing at 16 was “an emotional fall-out from


the days of the 11-plus”, but with the coalition seemingly planning to stick to plans to raise the school- leaving age to 18, this needed to change. “Doing exams earlier would


allow young people and their teachers to choose career and study paths based on the firm knowledge of their abilities and interests,” he said. “Currently, students do not have


good progression ladders, particu- larly if they want to opt for a voca- tional path. This is why we are left behind when it comes to our skills- base and need to recruit workers from overseas.” The study also looked at schools


admissions and challenged the gov- ernment to find alternative, fairer ways of distributing pupils around the system. The authors said existing admis-


sions policies were unfair on many young people, and pointed to the


Issue 267 • November 25 2010 Price £1.00 www.sec-ed.com


system in New Zealand where schools were allowed to set their own enrolment policies. Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of


the Sutton Trust, said: “England remains an outlier on the interna- tional stage in terms of the differ- ent educational pathways offered to children during their formative years – and effectively we have dif- ferentiation by default: all too often, children’s choices are dictated by the school they happen to be in, not their own talents and interests. “Professor Smithers and Dr


Robinson propose a radical solu- tion to bring England into line with international practice: undertake national examinations at age 14 instead of age 16, and offer pupils a set of distinct and credible educa- tional routes thereafter.”


•For more on the expected publica- tion of the education White Paper this week, see the report on page 3.


The Arts Award 40,000: Young creative artists from across the country came together on London's Millennium Bridge this week to mark the fifth anniversary of the Arts Award programme, and to celebrate the 40,000 young people that it has involved in arts education. For more, see page 4.


As a senior leader in education make sure you’ve got some serious professional and trade union support behind you.


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