Does our current exam system currently serve a purpose...
I keep looking at the assessment and exam world our children are moving through and wondering what it is actually for.
SATs.
GCSEs.
Functional Skills.
I understand the need for qualifications. I do.
There has to be some way of showing that a young person can read, write, think, problem-solve, communicate and move into whatever comes next with a decent foundation behind them.
But I do think we need to talk more honestly about the gap between what we say education is preparing children for, and what we actually measure.
Take Macbeth.
And before anyone dogpiles me, I am not having a go at Macbeth.
I am not having a go at Shakespeare.
I am not saying young people should never study it.
I get why it matters. The language, the history, the cultural weight, the influence, the themes. There is relevance there. There is value there.
Education should not just be job training.
Children should be exposed to things outside their immediate world. They should read difficult texts. They should wrestle with ideas. They should have access to culture, language and knowledge that might not otherwise land in their lap.
But I do think there is a difference between saying something is worth studying and saying it should carry so much weight in judging a young person’s ability, potential or readiness for life.
That is the bit I struggle with.
I know I am probably seen more as someone who talks about behaviour, safeguarding, pastoral care and the systems around children.
But I was a teacher too.
I might not have been the best teacher. I have said that before. Teaching came to me later, and my own education was not exactly a shining model of smooth progression either.
So maybe I look at some of this through that lens.
I know how hard it can be to deliver some of these areas well. I know the pressure staff are under. I know the pressure pupils are under.
And sometimes it feels like the outcome has become so heavy that it starts to distort the learning itself.
The stress on pupils now feels enormous.
SATs pressure.
Year 11 pressure.
Mock pressure.
Intervention pressure.
Revision pressure.
For some young people, especially those already carrying more than most adults could manage, the system does not always feel like it is measuring potential.
It feels like it is measuring how well they can survive the format.
Recall.
Writing stamina.
Exam technique.
Emotional regulation.
Confidence.
Attendance history.
Literacy.
Processing speed.
Home support.
The ability to hold themselves together for long enough to produce something that fits the mark scheme.
None of this means assessment has no value.
It means we should be more careful about pretending the result tells the whole story.
At some point, the question cannot just be:
“How do we get better results?”
It probably needs to be:
“What are these results actually for?”