With less than a week to go until results are published for the largest ever cohort of students resitting GCSE English and maths, colleges could be forgiven for approaching next Thursday will some trepidation.
This is the first year that it has been a condition of college funding that students who have not yet achieved a C grade or better in English and maths must retake the subjects. In June, TES revealed that the number of entries for GCSE English and maths in colleges this summer had increased by 40 per cent to top 200,000 for the first time.
Last year, the A*-C pass rate in both subjects across 17-plus students was just over 35 per cent. Not surprisingly, this was significantly lower than the figure recorded in schools.
But new analysis of the results by TES reveals that some colleges with sizeable resit cohorts recorded grades that would be the envy of many schools. Data for the 109 colleges where more than 100 learners took GCSE English last year shows that 39 colleges beat the national pass rate.
West Suffolk College achieved the most impressive results in English. Some 82.5 per cent of its 137 students achieved a C grade or better, narrowly ahead of City College Brighton and Hove (76.5 per cent). Both these colleges achieved higher results than the national average for 16-year-olds (72.6 per cent).
However, the GCSE maths results were significantly lower. Among colleges with 100 or more students, the best performer was Central Sussex College, with an A*-C pass rate of 50.4 per cent, narrowly ahead of New College Swindon (49.7 per cent). At 31 colleges, fewer than one in four students achieved a C or better, highlighting the challenges for colleges in this subject.
Research hopes
Last month, the Education Endowment Foundation launched a £5 million fund to research ways of improving the outcomes of students who fail to achieve a C grade in English and maths.
“While it’s fantastic to see colleges across the country delivering strong resit results for those who weren’t able to achieve this at age 16, too many young people will still leave formal education next week without a grade C in these core subjects,” chief executive Sir Kevan Collins told TES. “If we are serious about creating a consistently excellent system, we have to identify what has worked for these successful colleges and support others to improve.
“There is a danger that many young people develop particularly negative attitudes towards learning maths, especially if their experience of the subject in school was less than positive. This may go some way to explaining why even in the most successful colleges, the proportion of students passing their resits is less than in English.”
Last year, thinktank Policy Exchange recommended that secondary schools should cover the resit costs of some or all of their students who failed to get at least a C in GCSE English or maths and ended up transferring to a further education college.
“We need to do far more to spread the good practice,” said Jonathan Simons, head of Policy Exchange’s education unit. “My nervousness is that, not just this year but over the next few years as the new exam specs come through and the pass mark falls, the colleges will have even bigger cohorts.”
Sharon Collett, principal of City College Brighton and Hove, said it had focused on introducing new approaches to teaching, learning and assessment “to ensure students experienced something different from school and something that they could look forward to rather than fear”.
Providing one-to-one support for students was essential, she said. “By building their self-belief, our students were able to face the exams feeling confident that they understood how to approach the questions.”
Support inside and outside the classroom was key to success at Guildford College, according to Joanne Shankland-Breach, director of the faculty responsible for English and maths. “Our students have access to numerous resources using the college’s intranet system and Moodle,” she said. “We also host pre-exam breakfast workshops to support students with their revision.”
‘Parents are very involved’
It is “critical” for students to understand the importance of English and maths, according to Salford City College principal John Spindler. Turning up for the subjects is mandatory, with bursary payments linked to attendance.
“Maths and English staff work closely with the curriculum staff and discuss student progress as a whole,” he said. “Parents are very involved in their son’s or daughter’s progress at college, and parents’ evenings take place twice a year to ensure that the tutors, students and parents work in partnership.”
‘We give students the confidence and support to try again’
Students have studied English for 11 years by the time they leave school. Therefore, staff at West Suffolk College focus on boosting learners’ confidence, explained Lindsey Johnson, vice-principal for curriculum and quality.
“Some may also come with a negative approach to the subject because they have not passed it at school,” she said. “We have to reach a diverse group of young people with different needs and one of the main areas we have worked on is giving them the confidence and support to try again.
“Our teachers are interested in young people and what makes them tick. They look at what is relevant to a 16-year-old and apply that in the syllabus. We also gave students repeat reminders about when the exams were to ensure high attendance on the exam days.”
@jbelgutay
