School report: a round-up of recent stories from the front line in education

Unconditional Offers

 
In the last Spectator Schools, Ross Clark wrote about the dangers of ‘unconditional offers’, whereby a university offers a student a place irrespective of their exam results. The topic has come back into the news following this year’s A-level results, with headmasters bemoaning the apathy among students that unconditional offers can create.

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A number of heads blamed unconditional offers for the drop in top A-level results, with Universities Minister Jo Johnson writing that unconditional offers risk ‘undermining the faith which rests in our education system’. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, confirmed that it was concerned over the rise in such offers. ‘We know that students who are given and accept unconditional offers may drop a couple of grades in their A-levels because they do take their foot off the pedal,’ she said.
 

GCSE and A-level results

 
This year’s GCSE results have seen top marks increase yet again, with more than 20.8 per cent of entries graded A (7) or above. The reformed exams were introduced in 2017; since then the numbers of both top and pass marks have been growing. And  after years of girls beating boys in exams, boys are closing the gap. The gender divide between pass rates has narrowed, while the gap between girls and boys for top marks (A and above) remains at 6.5 per cent, the same as last year.

The subjects students are choosing has shifted as well. Foreign languages have experienced a revival at GCSE, with entries up by 3 per cent. Spanish has seen the greatest take-up, with the number of pupils entered for GCSE topping 100,000 for the first time. German, on the other hand, saw a 3.9 per cent fall in entries.

The school attainment gap is pronounced in A-Levels: 55 per cent of the exams were sat by girls, meaning nearly 80,000 fewer male A-level entries than female.