It's the difficult time of year where I need to balance my personal and intellectual dissatisfaction with the efficacy and real-world meaning of the exam system, with the effort and energy our young people, staff and systems have invested.
I will always congratulate and celebrate where it is due, but I also feel strongly that exam results must be seen in a wider context.
Consider the child who may have only scraped a handful, but is juggling an insecure situation at home. Congratulate them for showing up, even when they felt lost.
Consider the child with the amazing ideas and creative mind, whose recall of facts and expressive language freezes under exam conditions. Congratulate them for all those future successes they will experience under more appropriate conditions, now they have jumped this hurdle and can move on to the next step.
Consider the child who experienced panic attacks when entering the exam hall and, due to JCQ rules may not qualify for special consideration, received no grade. Break down their marks, find where they did succeed and help them plan next steps.
Consider the child who, with years of hard work, managed to scrap a Grade 2 or 3. Due to our current narratives around grading, they will feel they have failed. Help them see how far they have come and how far they can still go.
Exams do not tell you who you are, or even what you are capable of; let's help our young people see exams for what they are - assessments of a specific type of intelligence on a specific day under specific conditions. Let's help them identify the wins and learn from where things did not go so well.
Exam reform must be high in the agenda for The Labour Party and Department for Education.
#exams #school #education