Sir, Any school that adopts akey course and then drops it after a year has neither thought it through properly nor done any thorough planning for it (“Exam dropped as heads eye league tables”, Jan 14). Or perhaps it is bowing to pressure to satisfy the requirements of government league tables rather than benefiting the educational needs of students.
International GCSE (IGCSE) mathematics is certainly harder than GCSE, and there may well be a drop in top grades in other schools, but this has not been our experience. Our results are as good, if not better than previous years.
The IGCSE mathematics specification has some topics that prepare students for the sixth form far more rigorously than GCSE, and this is widely recognised by top independent and maintained schools. Since we introduced it in 2005, uptake of the subject has grown and now more than 65 per cent of our sixth form study maths.
I am surprised that “shockingly bad marking” is reported as one of the reasons for dropping the IGCSE after a year. If we were to cite this with GCSEs, independent schools would be running their own examinations in no time at all. We are all aware that, sometimes, newly qualified teachers are marking A—level and GCSE papers, something that would never have happened when I started teaching more than 25 years ago.
Peter Green
Headmaster, Ardingly College
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Sir, We did return to GCSE mathematics after one year of IGCSE once coursework had been removed from the GCSE qualification. However, our mathematics department is giving strong consideration to returning to it in response to the recent modularisation of the GCSE in that subject; indeed, our Year 10 pupils are currently preparing for the IGCSE in English to take advantage of the opportunities for stretch that we feel these IGCSE courses provide.
As an independent school we have the “independence” to give proper and continuing consideration to what is best for the needs of our pupils. Government statistics and league tables are not a concern for us, and a mixed economy of GCSE and IGCSE is without doubt the most desirable combination.
Jenny Dwyer
Headmistress, Sherborne School for Girls
Sir, Irrespective of small annual variations in the take-up of the IGCSE, it remains strong in the independent sector. But this is not the impression one would get from government statistics.
According to the Department for Children, Schools and Families, a smaller proportion of pupils in the independent sector (46.3 per cent) achieved five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C including English and mathematics than in the maintained sector (50.7 per cent). The true figure for leading independent schools is 93.2 per cent, once the IGCSE is included.
Times readers may be surprised to learn that a staggering 3,529 other Level 2 qualifications are recognised as acceptable “equivalents” to the Government’s own home-grown GCSE, including certificates in dry-cleaning operations, animation and podcasting. But not, apparently, the IGCSE.
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What clearer evidence could there be for the urgent need for change, both in performance tables and in those who set the rules.
Geoff Lucas
Secretary, Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference