We are all familiar with the pernicious consequences of the mysterious Ofqual algorithm. The early position dictated by the government was that grade inflation must be prevented, so calculated grades were generated in alignment with a centre’s previous results. Ofqual tried to follow orders, and in so doing removed the lid from Pandora’s box. 

The big flaw in the A-level post-Gove lottery is that, if you have a terminal exam as the sole assessment method, and the exam is cancelled, then you have no assessment. 

The retrofitting of teacher assessment was reaction rather than reformation. Distrust of the teaching profession runs deep in the DNA of the current Department for Education cadre. They have a working assumption that we can’t be trusted to act with honesty, integrity and professionalism when marking coursework, carrying out our own formative assessment, grading students’ work, or even reporting progress to parents. 

GCSE results: Doing it another way

At Bedales, we had been less nervous than others of the damage the Ofqual algorithm might be able to inflict on our GCSE results, because our students only take a maximum of five, in “core” subjects. The other half of our key stage 4 curriculum is our own well-established and homegrown Bedales assessed courses (BACs). 

We introduced BACs in 2006 because we were dissatisfied with the breadth and stimulation offered by GCSEs. Our teaching and assessment curriculum is designed explicitly to give our students more autonomy to explore their subjects and to report on what they have learned in appropriate ways.

Better preparation for A level and independent learning skills are common aims, and BACs are tailored to encourage inquisitive thinkers with a love of learning, whose talents are developed through doing and making. This makes BACs popular with university admissions staff. 

BACs offer greater choice for teacher and learner, with increased depth, more stimulating material, more active learning and less prescriptive syllabuses.

A vision for a perfect society

By way of example, consider the BAC in philosophy, religion and ethics, whose content stretches way beyond that of a religious studies GCSE. The latter has become demanding less for the depth of academic enquiry than for the bulk of material students must remember for terminal assessment. 

In our “Jesus in art” module, students choose two artistic depictions of an event in the life of Christ, drawing on differences in symbolism, and consequently different theological emphases in the artworks. 

Later in the course, students learn about philosophy, and in response must create something - a play, a poem, a story, a painting, or a game - that reflects the topic.

The culmination of the course is the Utopia Project, an independent learning project in which students create their vision for a perfect society, covering everything from government to education, ethics, views on freedom of citizens and a vision of happiness. This is quite unlike any course available elsewhere.

Robust grades

BACs are graded according to their own assessment criteria and follow the GCSE convention of awarding 9-1 grades. Each is as difficult to achieve as the corresponding GCSE grade, and in many cases harder.

Courses are externally moderated, with assessment methodology allowing for group presentations, solo presentations, coursework of varying lengths, as well as two shorter exam seasons in each year. This encourages and tests a far wider range of skills and knowledge than can be done via just a terminal exam. 

While exams remain important, we see them as just one in a range of assessment methods. This year, our BACs were just about wrapped up before lockdown, so we know those grades are robust. 

Although I question the need for a public exam at all in Year 11, as a first step I believe it is time now for the government to start rebuilding trust with pupils and teachers, by looking again at the viability of teacher assessment alongside terminal examinations. 

Bedales is part of a growing group of like-minded and innovative schools, across the state and independent sectors, who share a similar vision and would be delighted to contribute to the process of change. 

If a blended assessment methodology had been in place for GCSE and A levels, then schools would have been in possession of perhaps 80 per cent of the data on a student’s performance before lockdown. And this results fiasco could have been avoided. 

There may be some extreme optimists out there who think we will be able to enjoy an uninterrupted teaching year in 2020-21. But, if they are wrong, then embarking again on a journey with only a terminal assessment exam to evidence achievement will invite the same result.    

We can still put that lid back on Pandora’s box, should the government so wish.

Magnus Bashaarat is head of Bedales school in Hampshire