English GCSE - D minus to the exam boards

In a previous post I wrote about the difficulties created by moving the goal posts on A Level exam marking at the end of the course.  I said then that it would be interesting to see what would happen with English GCSE results this year and it seems even worse than I had feared. 

A brief summary of the situation so far – there was a noticeable slump in grades at GCSE English this summer and it rapidly became apparent that the grade boundaries had been changed so that most results went down by a grade from where they had previously been set.  This seemed particularly unfair, not just because of the unannounced nature of the change but also because if students had set the paper earlier in the year they had been graded under the previous boundaries.  In real terms this meant that the same work written in an exam would have received an A in November but a B in August.  Work worthy of a B grade earlier in the year would only gain a C in the summer exam of the same academic year and so on down the grades.  Common sense suggests that this is both unfair and capricious. 

Ofqual (the exam board regulator) conducted an enquiry into the slump in grades and concluded that this was what had happened but that there was no reason to change the boundaries.  The fig leaf offered for this decision was that the exam boards had greater insight into the work of the cohort in the later sitting of the exam.

Unsurprisingly this response has been viewed by schools, pupils and parents as completely unsatisfactory.  Michael Gove, newly re-confirmed as Education Secretary in the Cabinet re-shuffle, said on the Today programme on Radio 4, “Everyone who took the exam was treated in a way that wasn’t fair or appropriate.”  He has though refused to intervene which is slightly at odds with his willingness to be the most hands-on and vigorous Minister for Education for years.

This situation seems fundamentally unfair and leads to an enormous sense of injustice for pupils, parents and teachers.  I am delighted that HMC, the professional association of leading independent schools to which I belong, is joining in with other associations and unions to vigorously challenge the situation. 

I am all for increasing rigour in the exam system but the way to do this is to increase the standards required in exam answers, set tougher questions and ensure the syllabus is demanding.  This needs to be done strategically and in collaboration with schools – not imposed in the disorganised and unjust way we have seen this year.

Cathedral Address - 'Be doers not hearers'

Address given to Senior School in Cathedral, Thursday 6th September.

Based on Ecclesiasticus 11

Yesterday I focused on the importance of being, ‘Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.’  I said then that I wanted to pick up on another phrase which said, “Be doers of the word, not merely hearers’, and there is a link between that and today’s reading which is the theme of getting things done rather than just thinking about getting things done. 

I hope that you have set yourself some goals for the coming term and year.  Perhaps it is to get into a particular sports team, pass a music exam, achieve one of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.  Perhaps it is to work harder, to get your prep finished on time or to read more widely.  Whatever it is, goals and target setting are important ways of pushing ourselves forwards.  But whether you achieve your goals or not will come down to whether you find the motivation to turn thought into action.

Motivation is an interesting area of current research and a few months ago I read a book called ‘Drive’ by Daniel Pink.  The central idea he puts forward is that the old approach of carrot and stick is a very limited form of motivation.  This is the pattern of offering rewards for that which is good and punishment for that which is bad.  Pink’s claim is that what makes people tick, the real source of motivation, is not what pulls them forwards from outside but what pushes them forwards from the inside.

In particular he points to three core elements to motivation.  The things which make us want to do something.  I am going to use the Duke of Edinburgh Award to illustrate them but I hope you will apply the same thinking to something you are aiming to achieve and see if you can spot the connection.

The first element is ‘Purpose’ – that there must be some end goal that goes deeper and further than merely completing the task. On the expedition part of DofE you don’t slog up Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons purely to expend some calories and appreciate quite how wet and cold Wales can truly be.  It is the sense of achievement, of going outside your comfort and the camaraderie of being part of a team that pushes you on.

The second element is ‘Autonomy’ – the ability to make your own decisions and ultimately to grab the glory or to carry the can.  To succeed in DofE you need to take responsibility on yourself whether it be planning the expedition route or organizing the service component.  Doing something because you are told to can lead to sense of having fulfilled the task but does not bring with it the sense of inner satisfaction of doing something because you decided you wanted to.

The third element is called ‘Mastery’ and this refers to the drive to be really good at something and to truly challenge yourself.  Some of you will have heard of a book called ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell in which he tries to identify the factors that contribute to high levels of success. To support his thesis, he looks at a variety of examples including how Bill Gates achieved his extreme wealth and how The Beatles became one of the most successful bands in human history. Gladwell repeatedly mentions the "10,000-Hour Rule", claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.  We may struggle to devote ourselves to one activity for that length of time but there is no escaping graft and grind if we want to be really good at something.  In DofE terms this can be seen in the requirement to develop a skill or to complete a period of service with increasing numbers of hours expected at the different levels of the award.

It may be useful when thinking about your personal goals to see where the elements of Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery can be found and harness them to drive you on.  In addition to this it may also be helpful to fit individual goals into the wider context of the life you want to lead.  I am sure that you do not want to go through lurching from one thing to the next like a hamster on a wheel or a train on pre-determined tracks.  I expect that you want to be someone who seizes opportunities and makes things happen.  If that is the case then waiting for things to happen is not going to work.  We only have one life, one walkthrough on the planet and in universal terms, our lives are a cosmic sneeze.  This is not a new idea, the Roman poet Horace is credited with the famous command, Carpe Diem – or 'seize the day'.  The metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell memorably wrote, ‘But at my back I always hear, times winged chariot hurrying near.’  And this brings me back to our Bible reading for today and in particular the final words. 

“At the close of one’s life, one’s deeds are revealed.  By how he ends, a person becomes known.”

Or to put it another way, don’t look back later with regret.  Instead take and create the opportunities to make your life worthwhile and fulfilling and, most importantly, don’t put it off.  Do it now.

Cathedral Address - 'Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.'

Address given to Senior School in Cathedral, Wednesday 5^th September. 

Based on James 1: 17-27

“Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Famous words of advice from the Book of James but what do they mean and why should we listen?  The phrasing is, of course, deliberate – it is often human nature to act in exactly the opposite way.  Think back to the last time you felt angry.  How long ago was it?  Last month?  Or last week? Or in the last 24 hours?  What was it that made you angry?  Not being allowed to do something you wanted?  Feeling that you were not being taken seriously or that someone was being deliberately unkind?  Anger is a very human emotion, and when it is uncontrollable it is the cause of most human suffering from fights between friends to wars between nations.

Notice the way that this passage is looking at a particular cause of anger – when we do not listen, or seek to understand a situation properly, when we are quick to answer back or jump on the offensive – then we become angry in a way that escalates very rapidly and often leaves us looking rather foolish later on.  Think back to a time when you have jumped to the wrong conclusion and jumped off the deep end.  Be honest, we have all done it and we all know how embarrassing it is when we realise our mistake.

Shakespeare describes this sort of anger in his tragedy play ‘King Lear’.

Lear, the aging king of Britain, decides to step down from the throne and divide his kingdom evenly among his three daughters. First, however, he puts his daughters through a test, asking each to tell him how much she loves him before he will give them their inheritance. Goneril and Regan, Lear’s older daughters, give their father flattering answers. But Cordelia, Lear’s youngest and favourite daughter, remains silent, saying that she has no words to describe how much she loves her father.  All she can say is that she loves him and there is nothing she can add because her love is total.  Lear though is angered by her response.  ‘Nothing will come from nothing’ he warns her and she is exiled to France.

Lear allows himself to be deceived by his eldest daughters who tell him what he wants to hear.  Being too quick to jump to a conclusion he does not understand that Cordelia’s love for him is truer than her sisters and that because her heart is pure she is unable to dress up her feelings in false words just to keep him happy.  Lear flies into a rage and disowns Cordelia but quickly learns that he made a bad decision. Goneril and Regan begin to undermine the little authority that Lear still holds. Unable to believe that his beloved daughters are betraying him, Lear slowly goes insane. He flees his daughters’ houses to wander on a heath during a great thunderstorm and this is when his madness becomes total.  He shouts at the sky, bemoaning the cruelty of his daughters but is still unable to accept that his vanity and quickness to judge is the root cause of his demise.  Lear is unable at this stage to take responsibility for his own situation.  During the storm he cries out, ‘I am a man more sinned against than sinning’.  After the storm has subsided, full of self-pity, he moans that,

‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.  They kill us for their sport.’

Meanwhile, Cordelia returns from France with an army she has raised in an effort to save her father’s kingdom for him.  However they are defeated and both Lear and Cordelia are captured. In true Shakespearean style there is a lot of death in the closing acts. Lear and Cordelia are reconciled and he is finally able to appreciate his foolishness and to ask her forgiveness.  Goneril poisons Regan out of jealousy but then kills herself when her action is discovered. But in the final scenes, Cordelia is executed in prison and the play reaches it point of deepest tragedy.  Lear is totally broken and dies in despair and grief.

Shakespeare’s point is that the tragedy at the end of the play was inevitable from the moment Lear was ‘slow to listen, quick to speak and quick to anger’. 

There are times when anger is right.  There are things that happen in the world which are unjust and wrong and we are right to be angry about them.  But the Greek philosopher Aristotle was correct when he said:

“Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right amount and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”

So, the next time you feel angry.  Before you jump to any rash conclusions or over-react, take a little time and think thorough the situation.  Ask yourself whether being angry is a productive route forwards.  Avoid being like King Lear and instead:

“Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Assembly Address - 'Let your light shine before others.'

Address given in Senior School Assembly on Tuesday 4th September. 
Based on Matthew 5: 1-16

The passage we have just heard comes from the start of a lengthy section of Jesus’ teaching often called The Sermon on the Mount and this section contains the Beatitudes, a series of statements detailing groups of people who are called Blessed by Jesus.  For example, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart’ which in Latin is ‘Beati Mundo Corde’ and hence the name The Beatitudes.

It is a highly comforting passage because it contains a promise that ‘all will be well in the end’.  Those who mourn or are sad will be comforted.  The meek, or quiet people, are told that they will inherit the earth.  It also flags up desirable characteristics and attitudes we should aspire to:  Being merciful.  Being pure in heart.  Being a peacemaker.

The context of all of these is within a community under pressure and under threat.  Jesus’ teaching made him unpopular with the religious and political authorities of the time and the early Christian church was heavily persecuted within the Roman empire.  So the underlying message is one of staying true to your convictions when you are under pressure.

It’s easy to see a connection between this passage and the poem that it doubtless inspired – ‘If' by Rudyard Kipling.  A famous and popular poem which I am sure most of you know and some of you studied last year.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

In common with a great deal of the Christian gospel, there are some elements of the message which are difficult.  Some believe that Jesus was a pacifist, strictly opposed to violence and warfare and the verse saying ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ would seem to support that idea.  Others argue that war, as a last resort, can be the only way to achieve peace.  You can see this in the way the military has Chaplains who are with the troops right on the front line in Afghanistan.  Soldiers who are warriors can also be seen as peacemakers.

The other paradox, which is a puzzle sitting at the heart of belief in God, is the problem of evil and suffering.  How could an all-powerful, God of love let people suffer?  This passage is all about the message that there is some purpose in suffering but some will question whether it is true that ‘it will all make sense in the end’.

But the key message I want to draw out from this passage is the importance of being true to your convictions.  Being willing to stand up for what you believe in, even if it is unpopular.  Everything is easy when all is going well but it’s how we respond to challenge and pressure that makes a real difference and, much as we may wish for an easy life, we all know that it’s unrealistic to hope for a world with no problems.  As the end of passage says; ‘Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works’.  Take this message forwards and put it into practice this term and the year ahead and you won’t go far wrong.

Exam results - increasing rigour or chasing headlines?

This summer's GCSE and A Level exam results process has been the most unusual I can remember.  We have become used to the annual pattern of a slight rise in results and the predictable responses of some saying grade inflation means the exams are easier while others defend the hard work put in by pupils and their teachers.  This year, though, has seen the first decline in top grades at A Levels and pass rates at GCSE and the fallout has rocked the press with Michael Gove and the exam boards facing accusations of meddling and mis-handling.

There is little doubt that it has become easier to attain the top grades.  Twenty odd years ago I was in the second cohort to take GCSEs and I can still remember those who had been the last to take O Levels condemning our significantly better results.  Most of my contemporaries went to Russell Group universities with three Bs at A Level and I was offered a place at Oxford with ABB.  Last year the Senior Tutor of a Cambridge college told me that the average results of the new undegraduates was between A*A*A* and A*A*A.  We may be getting taller as a nation but I'm not sure our intellectual capacity has been growing at the same rate and grade inflation is a reality.

There is a paradox here though.  Because so many pupils attain top grades, the universities have increased their offers and now the pressure is intense on our young men and women not to slip up at any point.  Arguably, they work harder and under greater weight of expectation than any previous generation.

For a long time now there has been talk of the need to slow and reverse the year on year increases in grades.  As a Head I have little problem with this notion - rigour is good and universities and employers need to be able to differentiate between the relative abilities of applicants.  Philosophically, it also makes little sense for grades to keep on rising to a logical conclusion where everyone ends up with A*s and As. 

However, there needs to be a strategic approach to managing increased rigour in examinations.  Like it or not, the radar of teachers, pupils, parents and universities has become calibrated to the current levels of expectation.  We started to pick up indications of goal posts being shifted earlier this year as examiners started applying more stringent requirements on coursework and most of us suspected this was a mechanism to reduce results come August.  This summer was particularly interesting for me as I was analysing results both at my last school and new one.  I was also in touch with a number of other independent schools and have recently been talking to colleagues in state schools.

Results were down nationally but only by small margins at the top end.  The reality is that at schools like ours the bulk of results are at the top end so it was inevitable that the impact would be more marked.  All the schools I was in contact with went home the day before results would be released with significantly greater numbers than usual who looked to have missed the grade requirements for their university offers.  We had also had unusually low marks in several subjects and it looked as though results day would be highly problematic.

Come the morning however, we all found that the picture was very different.  Universities are able to use their discretion on results and the overwhelming majority of pupils had been accepted.  This also included those who had failed to get the magic AAB or better set by HEFCE which meant that their university would receive a lower level of funding.  Last week, the GCSE results showed some similar patterns with English in particular seeming to have had the grade boundaries artificially set downwards.  Urgent and public enquiries have been called for and Michael Gove accused of meddling.  It will be very interesting to see how that all plays out.

What seems clear is that the goal posts have been shifted at the end of the process as a mechanism to produce lower results, presumably to give the impression of higher expectations and control over an inflationary market.  I say again, that I am all in favour of rigour but this is not the way to increase the challenge. 

Chopping marks at the end benefits no one and instead has led to unecessary complications for universites, teachers, pupils and parents - all because the mechansim has been so crude and poorly communicated.  History A Level was the worst example I saw.  Pupils who were sitting on very high marks from AS suddenly getting Cs and Ds in their final papers.  I wrote to several universities where this meant my pupils had fallen below their offers.  An interesting response came from the Head of History at a Russell Group university who had seen this as a national pattern and was convinced that grade manipulation was taking place.

So what is the solution?  Certainly not to arbitraily impose changes on marks at the end of two years of study with no prior warning or collaboration.  Far better to increase the standards required in exam answers, set tougher questions and ensure the syllabus is demanding.  This is something which needs managing over time, not pushed through in search of a headline in August.

Independent Olympians - why sport matters

You would have thought that the only people disappointed by London 2012 would be the doom-mongerers who predicted it would be a disaster zone of unfinished venues and a broken transport system.  In the event, it was of course a huge triumph.  London looked amazing, the venues were astonishing and commentators around the world have been hailing it as one of the greatest Olympics ever.

To top it all, Team GB came third in the medal table and national pride, heightened no doubt by being in the year of the Queen's diamond jubilee, went through the roof.  But our performance is even more impressive when you compare the size of our nation to the two countries who beat us.  The US topped the table with 104 medals.  Impressive but with over 300 million inhabitants that equates to one medal per 3 million people.  China came second with 88 medals - or a paltry one medal per 15 million people.  Meanwhile Britain, with 65 medals and 60 million people, can claim to have one medal per 923 inhabitants.

I owe this slightly maverick way of measuring success to a Scots / Bahamian friend who is very fond of using it to argue that the Bahamas are second in the all-time league table of Olympics success and that Scotland should start every game of rugby against England with a head start of 17 points.  Naturally I don't let him get away with such tricks but it's a fun way of pointing out how significant our success was this summer.

Ben Ainslie

All should have been happiness and light but a strange thing happened half way through the games. It started to become apparent that many of Team GB's medal winners were educated at independent schools.  It was interesting, and a little depressing, that the slant put on the story by many in the media was that this was a bad thing with independent schools stealing all the toys.  It has been pleasing recently to see the debate shift to where it should be - why is that independent schools produce so many good sportsmen and women and how can improvements be made in the state sector?

In turn, this has raised the old story of school playing fields being sold off and the decline of coaching in many maintained sector schools.  A great outcome has been a focus on the importance of sport as part of a healthy lifestyle amid rising obesity in the nation.  The government has been swift to start talking about raised expectations of sport in the national curriculum which is great news.

Sir Chris Hoy

Independent schools focus on sport because they understand, and are committed to, the value of sport in the education of young people.  Sport both in terms of PE lessons and games sessions are a key part of the week.  There is a good dose of 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' to this but it is also because it develops values such as camaraderie, tenacity, commitment and leadership in a way that the academic side of the curriculum cannot do.

Let's not forget that it is also expensive to take this approach both in terms of time in the week and the cost of provision.  However we do it because it is important.  King's Rochester is an excellent example of this as we are in the process of acquiring a sports centre from the local council.  In addition to the excellent facilities indoors, this gives us 9 tennis / netball courts outside and access to further playing fields and Olympic standard astroturfs for hockey.  We will be putting in £500,000 of investment over the next few years to bring it up to standard and, crucially, making it available to the local community.

So, congratulations to all the medal winners at the Olympics and let's use this as an opportunity to praise and promote sport in schools.

The future of libraries

I read a blog earlier this year about the future of school libraries which caused a huge debate. The central thesis seemed to be that the library of the future might not need to contain any books. This would be replaced by easy access to books online with libraries remaining as attractive learning environments where librarians could guide students in research skills. Given that the idea of a library without books sounds counter-intuitive this provoked a storm of protest and some pretty vitriolic comments on the blog. Coming at the same time as several councils announced plans to scrap local libraries it is not surprising that the nation's librarians were keen to defend their role.  More recently Wellington College announced plans to significantly reduce their stock to make the library more of a learning space than 'the room with the books'.



Radcliffe Camera, Oxford



So what is the future of school libraries? Clearly they provide an excellent environment for students and staff to work. When I was at university I collected memberships of various libraries partially to broaden my access to books but also because they were inspiring places in which to work.  When I first started work at Berkhamsted I was completing a dissertation for my MA and the school library was the perfect place to do my thinking and writing.



Last summer we spent a lot of time and money on improving the facilities for our Sixth Form students. Central to this was more than doubling the size of the Careers Library, putting in more computers and access to a WiFi network throughout the building. There are an enormous number of rooms where the students can work (we are fortunate to be in a large and beautiful 500 year old building) but what is striking is that they gravitate towards the Careers Library and other shared study spaces. I'm sure that part of the appeal is the same as it was for me - great spaces are great places to work. More than that though, humans are sociable animals and I think my students are drawn to where others are working. When they need to totally zone in they will go back to one of the many House Rooms in the building where they can usually guarantee some solitude.

What I would like to see though is more of them with a pile of books and articles on their desks as evidence that they are synthesising material from a variety of sources.  The truth is that mostly they do not need to do this as part of their A Level studies.  I don't think there's much change here since I was in their shoes just over 20 years ago.  All I needed came from one core textbook and the teaching in the classroom.  However, in the Upper Sixth I 'discovered' the theology section of the school library and with very little additional work I found that my essays improved dramatically.



Worcester College Library, Oxford



My angle is that students may not need to research independently for their A Levels but that they should do so.  There are a number of clear benefits to this.

• It develops their love and understanding of the subject.
• It will improve their performance and strengthen their applications to universities.
• Synthesis, selection and deployment of information are skills most of use in our professional lives.
• It will better prepare them for the independent study expected at university.
• Increasingly post-graduate study is becoming more common which is where such skills are mandatory not optional.

So it seems to come down to an age-old debate in education, one set against the backdrop of the huge pressure to attain the best grades.  Where is the line between ensuring the students are taught in a manner which will deliver the best chances of top grades and making them work more independently with the associated risk of lower performance?

For many years all of our students applying to Oxbridge have had to write an extended essay.  From this September we will be running the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) for a group of Lower Sixth.  Worth half an A Level, this is a 5-6,000 word essay in the style of a mini-thesis which universities love to see as it closely correlates to undergraduate work.  We are running a pilot group which will be drawn from the top 20 performers at GCSE - and over 100 students have expressed interest.  I suspect that we will be running it for pretty large numbers before too long.  I'd like to think the interest shown is more than just seeking an edge in UCAS applications, but part of me isn't particularly fussed - the end may well justify the means.  We are also giving all our Sixth Form students study skills sessions in how to research effectively.

So, what's my solution to the future of libraries?

1. A high quality and updated stock of reading books aimed at the various age groups of the school.  A love of reading is at the heart of all education.
2. Students being guided in research skills and using online resources.
3. Subject specific works for research, with additional access to borrowing from other libraries and online journals.
4. Great spaces all over the school for working.
5. Departments planning opportunities for research essays.

Not exactly re-inventing the wheel but looking to make sure that we get the absolute best out of libraries for staff and students.



Berkhamsted School library