The Conundrum of CK GCSE Underachievement

I have been completing my results analysis for my GCSE group and I have tried to rationally breakdown what went wrong from an English perspective. I have tried to recognise overall patterns in an attempt to cleave useful information which I can use in future. I was wholly gutted on results day, seeing most of the group underachieving by a grade in English Language, against what I thought they could achieve in optimal circumstances. It was very interesting to see that the whole group achieved a grade D or above, and yet more than two thirds of the group only achieved a grade D. I considered the individuals and CK really stood out for me when considering why he didnt get a grade C, and how was he was representative in some way. To give some background on CK: he had a B grade target, which was always very ambitious, but achievable in the right circumstances (I though a C grade in language was realistic). He gained a C grade in Literature and was very happy with the result. He was three marks off a grade C in English Language. He was phlegmatic about this and not really aware of the significance of that C grade in Language (despite being told many times its crucial importance was he ever listening?). CK was one of the many targeted students. He attended the vast majority of our after-school revision sessions. He was mentored by a Head of Year who contacted teachers to try and support him. Essentially, CK was very disorganised, lacking any sense of independence. He missed most coursework deadlines and many homework deadlines attending his fair few detentions as a result, but with little affect upon the actual issue. He made the same mistakes in his writing over and over, despite being given advice. His mentor asked if there was any more he could do to improve to support him, when he needed to do the basics of homework, drafting and listening that he had largely failed to do through KS4, and before I suspect. I believe CK is representative of much of the underachievement of our GCSE students. He was consistently part of the pile of planners that regularly rested on my desk due to missed homework revealing a lack of independence, a sense of we will be pushed there in the end, rather than any sense of personal responsibility and self-motivation. A sense that they had stopped listening to the many lectures about their effort was pervasive. They seemed to become immune to bad comments and detentions and very few seemed to appear in Homework Support, compared with previous years. He passed Literature, that subject which CK could be given lots of information and memory strategies, factual, didactic; whereas he failed in the exam the focused upon measuring skills and basic writing. CK had also done very well in RS in Y10. How much was this due to hard work by teachers, last minute revision, rigorous pushing all well-meaning and how much was it CK independently succeeding? How much did it undermine the attempt to get them to become independent and self-motivating in Y11. What message does it send to students that in modular subjects you will not be allowed to fail you will repeat the module until you succeed: in effect, you will not be allowed to fail. In the last couple of months, when the crucial revision began, the students were tired (as were the teachers), burnt out and switched off, pulled in every direction by coursework deadlines and last minute revision sessions. In previous years students were given a study break this year we gave them more of the same, repeating ourselves, driving them into the ground, and ourselves I suspect.

With Johns point about the aggregation of marginal gains I considered the three marks CK missed out on for that C grade. I do think we are going in the right direction by having coursework completed in Y10, having the breathing room of doing some GCSE work at the end of Y9 to avoid a lull before Y10 and Y11. Moving nearer to mixed ability has meant that set 3/4s arent sink groups, full of behavioural issues and without much positive achievement for students to model themselves upon (it begs the question is the top set streaming working? The statistics dont seem to bear much fruit. Would we get more As by mixing all the year group, especially in Y11?) and quite frankly challenging to teach and establish a positive relationship. How can we move forward further so that students like CK dont miss those small gains? In my opinion we should go full mixed ability (especially in light of the culture change in the school). The small SEN group would be no more and the group size of all groups would be reduced, aiding differentiation. We should work together to create model schemes of work that are shared. We should do them at the same time as a half-year group to allow for regrouping at any stage. In January of Y11 we should carousel groups to different teachers who specialise in one area of the exam that would ideally match their strength e.g. Karl doing Paper 1; Section A etc. The English Lit teaching in Y11 should be about skills and not about a specific Lit text/poetry anyway. Groups could work around their text within whole teaching groups where necessary. It would encourage some much needed independence. Group presentations about different texts given to a class would deepen their understanding of Literature. Would we get more A*s if students made perceptive comparisons and original interpretations, rather than all regurgitate the same interpretation, all on the same text? Are we throwing the baby out with the bath water for a course that is ending? It is significant change but we would be supported with time, like we were this year. These changes would be easily passed onto any GCSE course in future, which we could choose to suit our needs. Will it cause more work? No. We could work in buddy groups, sharing our planning and therefore reducing our workload, we could discuss how things went, thereby sharing our problems. We could repeat our special areas, thereby tweaking it, making it better, finding those aggregate gains. We would be sharing responsibility by sharing the students. We would keep them fresh by having different teachers with different styles. We would all be made accountable by communicating our specialist area, but with the support of our colleagues in the same position. I think we should no longer think just in terms of my class and instead move towards thinking of our year group and our department as a team. I dont want to come to results day this year thinking: I have a small SEN group, I dont need to be concerned much with results, let someone else take the heat. To quote Einstein: We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

Alex Quigley