Private schools in Wales ‘more confident in England GCSEs’
INDEPENDENT school head teachers in Wales have warned that parents lack confidence in Wales’ reformed GCSEs.
Many private schools in Wales opted for England’s new number-graded GCSEs, with the most able pupils achieving the top 9 grade which some heads say is equivalent to an A** – something pupils in maintained schools are unable to get under the current letter system.
One head said that private schools were not protesting against Wales’ GCSE reforms but were responding to a lack of confidence among parents.
Simon Antwis, head teacher at St Clare’s School, Porthcawl, said pupils took England’s new English language, English literature and maths GCSE because “it was very clear that the groundswell of opinion was for England’s GCSEs”.
He backed Wales’ GCSE reforms, but said parents wanted their children to take England’s qualification.
“We consulted all stakeholders and parents came in for an evening, when I presented cases for both. I think parents’ confidence in the Welsh GCSEs was not as high as for the English GCSEs.
“That is not necessarily my opinion. I fully support what the Welsh Government is doing with education in Wales and fully respect the Welsh education system.
“This is not a protest against education in Wales and our pupils took the Welsh A-levels.
“I think parents have seen the statistics produced across Wales in numeracy and literacy and the GCSE results for them are lower. I think the opinion was that the English GCSEs were higher standard.
“The reasons I had was that I was concerned my staff were not getting the training or resources required in either new qualification (from England or Wales), but because I belong to a group predominantly of English schools (owned by Cognita), I could pool resources and expertise.
“I think parents felt England’s GCSE reform was ahead of Welsh GCSE reform. Most independent schools in Wales are taking English GCSEs.
“I could not comment on comparing GCSEs. I would not say one is better than the other.”
But Mr Antwis did believe a grade 9 was higher than A*.
“A 9 is designed to be achieved by a very few pupils,” he said. “I would class it as an A**. It is certainly higher than an A*.”
Of his 33 pupils taking maths, 3.2% got 9s and 10.8% 8s. There were no 9s in either English exam, but 3% of the 33 pupils sitting English language achieved 8s and 20% of the 15 pupils sitting literature got 8s.
All three GCSEs were taken under the WJEC exam board’s arm, Eduqas, with the school achieving between well above the national average results for maths, English language and literature at grades 4 to 9.
At Rydal Penrhos School, Colwyn Bay, four 9s were achieved, with pupils taking England’s new number-graded GCSEs with the Edexcel exam board for English language and literature.
It will move from iGCSE maths to number-graded Edexel maths next year.
Head teacher Simon Smith said: “We chose, with parental support, to move away from WJEC, believing the Edexcel course, with its greater literature components, was a more rigorous course and a better preparation for English lit-