IN ASSOCIATIONWITH


School Bath To IB or not to IB? That is the question Stephen Wilkinson, director of studies at Canford, addresses here as he discusses


the merits of A-levels and the fact that they offer ‘fair and square marks’. The International Baccalaureate diploma might not suit all their pupils, but they adapt the best bits of the IB to inform pupils’ studies.


modules, the story goes, that the results they get are not a true reflection of what they have learned. “They take so many exams that there is no time to teach them,” someone else will say. And, of course, it stands to reason, doesn’t it: if results continue to get better, then the exams must be ‘dumbed down’. At Canford, we have taught A-levels for many years and we


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know a lot about them. For us, the excitement of A-level teaching remains undimmed, and there are huge challenges in mastering the content of any of the A-levels we offer. The A* grade, introduced last year, provides a real and demanding target for the most able, which none can take for granted. Yes, it is true that in some cases pupils can take a module more


than once, with the better mark counting; but this does little more than offer a safety net for a pupil who might have an ‘off day’, or allow a feckless youth the chance to recognise the error of his ways and do the work that perhaps he should have done the first time round. And which one of us has not had a ‘feckless youth’ moment that we would have loved the chance to put right? All the marks that A-level pupils gain, and the grades they contribute to, are marks that pupils have earned, fair and square, in the exam room. To claim that the outcome from the first attempt is the only one that can fairly count seems perverse to us. That is not to say that we are complacent about the curriculum


we offer. In 2006 a small committee looked closely at the possibility of offering the International Baccalaureate diplomas as a replacement for A-levels. It was a time when many schools like us were interested in this debate. Some schools chose to offer the IB. We did not, for reasons which are still valid. It would not help many of our pupils, we feel, to study the


six subjects (including English, maths, and a foreign language) required by the IB. While we want them to see every area of the curriculum as interesting and approachable, there is ample scope at GCSE level to test one’s ability in a wide range of subjects. The Sixth Form is a time to begin the process of specialisation


for a university degree. Delaying this journey inevitably leads to a less thorough understanding by the time of the increasingly competitive university entrance season. Many of our pupils achieve spectacular results by focusing on sciences, or languages, or arts, or humanities. We do not want to take this opportunity away from them. Nonetheless, there was a lot we saw in the schools already


teaching the IB that we found compelling. Our response, rather than to switch wholesale to a curriculum that would not serve all of our pupils well, was to adapt for ourselves the parts we liked. So, the IB’s extended essay has led to the introduction of


Extended Project Qualifications (EPQs) for interested sixth formers, with around 20 of our pilot group submitting exciting projects this year. Next year this number looks set to double, and we love the independence of thought and the feeling of personal victory that this opportunity has presented to those who took part. Likewise, the Theory of Knowledge component of the IB


has been threaded throughout the school’s General Studies programme (Connections) that gives pupils in every year the chance to place into a wider context the knowledge they gain though subject lessons.


Above right: Canford is a leading co-educational school Below right: Learning in the classroom the Canford way


WILTSHIRE LIFE Schools Supplement October 2011 The curriculum that has resulted from these changes is one


we are excited by. We retain the flexibility to play to our pupils’ strengths, without narrowing them down unnecessarily. We have the flexibility also to respond to other curriculum innovations such as the Cambridge Pre-U syllabuses, which two of our departments now offer instead of A-levels. And you will know by talking to our pupils that A-levels leave them anything but ‘dumbed down’.


• Stephen Wilkinson is director of studies at Canford in Dorset, one of the country’s leading co-educational boarding schools for children aged 13 to 18. For more details visit their at www.canford.com.


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VERY YEAR the cry goes up, as that day in August produces yet another crop of excellent results, that A-levels are not what they used to be. Pupils have so many chances to retake


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