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Cowboy fear as boards told to axe seminars


By Pete Henshaw


The decision to ban awarding bod- ies from holding teacher seminars for specific qualifications could result in “unregulated cowboy com- panies” filling the gap, headteachers have warned. Exams regulator Ofqual this


week announced that face-to-face seminars relating to specific, named qualifications will be banned from September 2013. The decision comes following


last year’s seminar scandal when theDaily Telegraph printed extracts from four exam workshops in which teachers seemed to be given inside information, including ques- tions, about future exams. More than 4,000 exam board


seminars take place each year and a subsequent investigation by Ofqual found good practice “in the main”, but this week’s report does acknowledge “specific incidents of malpractice”. The watchdog’s report conclud-


ed: “Seminars concentrating on a specific qualification present unac- ceptable risks to the wider educa- tion system. There is a real risk that inappropriate information about the future content of secure exams is disclosed. And there is a risk of


narrowing the curriculum through sessions on how to teach the speci- fication. We have concluded that ... train-


ing events of a more general nature do not present the same level of risk, and may continue at present.” However, Brian Lightman, gen-


eral secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, while welcoming the “robust” response from Ofqual, fears that the decision is an over-reaction. He said: “The danger is that


unregulated cowboy companies will fill the gap and hearsay and misinformation will permeate. “There is a big difference


between ‘cheating’ and providing teachers with the information they need to prepare pupils for exams, and it is pupils who will lose out if teachers are not properly briefed.” Mr Lightman said it would be


better for this information to come the exam boards themselves, rather than an unregulated market. He added: “It would seem more


sensible to ensure that the rules are clearly defined and communicated about what examiners can and can- not do and then to be vigilant about monitoring and dealing individually with any incidents of malpractice, if they occur.” However, Ofqual chief regula-


tor, Glenys Stacey, said the new rules would still enable teachers to access the information they need to understand the exams their pupils take. She added: “We know the value


of teachers interacting with experts from exam boards, but we have concluded that there are better ways for information to be shared, such as live online events or webinars.” Rod Bristow, president of


Pearson UK, owners of Edexcel – which suspended an examiner as a result of the allegations last year – said they had already taken “strong action” to ensure that infor- mation shared at events is “always appropriate”. He added: “Many of our events


will be online and all will be record- ed to enable a high degree of trans- parency.” WJEC, another of the boards


implicated in the Daily Telegraph investigation, welcomed the pro- posals. A statement added: “For train-


ing sessions in the current aca- demic year and in 2012/13 we have already implemented a range of measures to ensure consistency of the information provided, including clearer guidelines to contributors at face-to-face events, to ensure con- sistency.”


Skills education ‘boosts GCSEs’


Some vocational and skills-based qualifications may be effective in helping lower ability pupils gain higher grades at GCSE, according to a new study. The findings, from the


University of the West of England (UWE), come three months after ministers downgraded vocational qualifications and announced they would no longer be counted in performance league tables. But researchers found that


studying some skills-based courses, which concentrated on personal development and employability, could enhance English and maths outcomes at GCSE grades A* to C by up to 10 per cent, and there was also an estimated five per cent likelihood of an increase in achieving five or more GCSEs at top grades, compared with students who did not undertake the courses. The biggest impact was on


young people who had low key stage 3 attainment in English, pupils with special needs, those with English as a second language, and learners who are eligible for free school meals. The courses also particularly benefited boys, the study found. Researchers at UWE found that


the courses boosted confidence, self-esteem, enhanced motivation, and encouraged young people to


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attend school when they might otherwise have dropped out. Their study focused on


the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE), a qualification specialising in skills-based courses. It found that the completion


of CoPE was also associated with a significantly higher contextual value-added score for key stage 2 to 4 – a mean of 28.5 additional points. The study concluded: “It is


difficult to disentangle the precise impact of CoPE on CVA scores. There would appear to be strong prima facie evidence that it has an effect beyond its own scores for at least those attaining Levels 2 and 3 in English at key stage 2.” Marius Frank, chief executive


of the awarding body Asdan, which offers CoPE, said: “This is one of the qualifications that the government suggested was useless, and yet here we have evidence that far from being so, it can actually help to raise standards across the board. “Michael Gove, the education


secretary, has repeated often that schools are free to deploy whatever qualifications are appropriate to their students but not all of those will be included as headline statistics and progress measures.”


Proposals to make school intervention easier


New legislation aimed at raising standards is set to make it easier for Welsh councils to intervene in failing schools. Education minister Leighton


Andrews believes the new School Standards and Organisation Bill should mean “earlier but less drastic” action. Teaching unions have broadly welcomed the Bill but some have warned that a close eye must be kept on how councils use the new powers.


The proposed legislation lowers


the threshold for councils to issue warning notices to schools deemed to be failing and reinforces their powers to suspend boards of governors. Mr Andrews said: “All children


and young people in Wales should have access to the best education which will benefit them throughout their lives. Reducing bureaucracy and improving school standards is a crucial element of this.”


He continued: “The Bill will


enable us to raise and strengthen school standards by providing statutory school improvement guidance to local authorities which will ensure good practice is applied consistently across the whole of the country.” Parents would be able to petition


governors for meetings, and the law simplifies the process for closing schools with fewer than 10 pupils. There would also be a


legal obligation on councils to have plans to provide sufficient Welsh language places. And councils would have some leeway over the price of school meals, letting them cut the cost for children from big families. Education authorities would


also have a duty to make reasonable provision for an independent counselling service. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has


previous said that it doubts that all 22 councils in Wales have “the required capacity” for “intelligently informed” interventions to raise standards. Dr Chris Howard, former NAHT


president and headteacher of Lewis School in Caerphilly county, said difficulties occurred when a school, parents and the local authority could not agree on the problems and how to deal with them.


Report calls for grammars to face higher targets


Grammar school students should be expected to attain at least five A or A* GCSEs including English and maths, a report has advised. Authored by Professor David


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Jesson of the University of York, Great Expectations, argues that the existing attainment benchmark of five A* to C GCSEs including English and maths “fails to challenge” the most able pupils.


2 Prof Jesson has carried out


an analysis of grammar school performance on behalf of The Schools Network. There are 164 grammar schools


in 36 local authorities in England. They educate 160,000 of the 3,000,000 secondary students in the country with around 22,000 pupils being selected each year. Prof Jesson states that since


grammar schools are high- performing, “the conventional measures of performance which are designed for the majority non- selective schools do not adequately capture the nature of their GCSE performance”. His report highlights that,


currently, 67 per cent of grammar students get five or more A* or A GCSE passes, while 54.8 per cent


achieve this benchmark including English and maths. The report adds: “Around 58


per cent of pupils in comprehensive schools achieve five or more A* to C grades including English and maths. The parallel measure we have proposed for grammar schools is the percentage of pupils achieving five or more A* or A GCSE grades including English and maths.


Currently around 55 per cent of grammar school pupils achieve this.” Prof Jesson said: “Grammar


schools should expect to achieve high levels of performance for their pupils and most do. There are however substantial differences between grammar schools’ outcomes which tend to go unnoticed in the standard performance tables.”


SecEd • May 3 2012


Lucie Carlier


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