Secondary faculties can be instructed to not educate GCSEs early as a part of a significant shake-up of how kids in Years 7 to 9 are taught.
The federal government plans to make Key Stage 3 a extra distinct training section, urging faculties to focus much less on exams and extra on a “richer, extra partaking” expertise.
The modifications are available response to 2 opinions that discovered pupils have been more and more changing into disengaged of their early teenage years, affecting attendance and achievement, the Division for Training (DfE) mentioned.
The transfer will mark a reversal of the strategy taken by the earlier Conservative authorities to focus the primary three years of secondary college on core topics and on doing properly in assessments.
Former Training Secretary Michael Gove prioritised English, maths and science, whereas elevating grade boundaries, making exams tougher and limiting resits.
He additionally made GCSEs linear, that means they’re sat multi function go on the finish of 12 months 11 as an alternative of over the course of Key Stage 4.
These reforms meant lecturers began making ready pupils for exams at an earlier stage on the expense of educating unexamined elements of their topic.
Training Secretary Lucy Powell mentioned: “The early years of secondary college ought to be a time when kids are excited to go to high school and interact within the specialist and far broader educating on provide, and the place they discover their ardour and develop a love of studying.”
She added that ringfencing Key Stage 3 research would enable for “extra time to develop deeper understanding, in addition to a richer expertise that may interact extra younger folks of their passions”.
The DfE has pledged a “extra partaking provide” in topics like drama, PE, music and languages, which have seen a decline in college students taking them, when it publishes its new curriculum later this 12 months.
It says persistent absence almost doubles amongst pupils between 12 months 6 and 12 months 9, from 13% to fifteen%.
The division pointed to a current survey commissioned by the Worldwide Baccalaureate that discovered GCSE prep dominated Key Stage 3 studying in England, with 57% of lecturers saying it was the main affect on the curriculum.
“The pressures of GCSEs and an overcrowded curriculum are leading to too many kids receiving a narrower provide throughout Key Stage 3 and being rushed in the direction of exams with out greedy the basics or growing deeper understanding,” Powell mentioned. “I am placing a cease to that.”
A 2015 Ofsted report recommended that Key Stage 3 could also be “wasted years”, echoing the view on the time that pupils aged 11-14 lacked a transparent motivation to work onerous.
Nonetheless, the federal government confronted criticism on the time that its reforms made every examination much more important, that means lecturers refocused classes solely on what may come up in them.
Reacting to the DfE’s announcement on Sunday, Lib Dem training spokeswoman Munira Wilson MP mentioned college was “greater than drilling youngsters for exams” however cautioned in opposition to “micromanaging” lecturers.
She added {that a} new curriculum “alone will not get kids again into the classroom”, noting that “too many pupils are lacking college due to anxiousness and unmet psychological well being wants” whereas “faculties cannot provide extra drama, music and languages with out the lecturers to show them”.
