Timetabling maths and English lessons for the middle of the day is helping schools and colleges engage pupils who have been told they must resit GCSEs in maths and English.

A research report on the published by the Department for Education today found motivating students who had “expectations of continuing failure” was one of the key challenges for schools and colleges under the resit policy.

The report, Effective teaching of English and maths to 16- to 18-year-olds, found that institutions which timetabled English and maths before pupils’ chosen subjects “tended to find the process less challenging”. Having students who were studying similar subjects grouped together encouraged confidence and having lessons in the middle of the day encouraged attendance if elective subjects were on either side - and made it easier for students who were reliant on public transport to get there.

The study also found that there were fewer attendance issues if pupils were offered more frequent, shorter lessons than with fewer, longer lessons.

Resit research

The researchers - from CFE research, Nottingham, Birmingham City and Edge Hill Universities - pointed out that one of the key challenges for teachers was motivating students who had not achieved a GCSE grade C, so felt like “failures”.

“Some students are disappointed by their GCSE grade but are still motivated to try and improve. More often, students lack motivation to study these subjects further and their attitudes reflect expectations of continuing failure driven by their own self-esteem and-or how their abilities have been labelled by others,” the report states.

Since August 2014, students aged 16 to 18 who have not achieved a grade C in GCSE maths and-or in GCSE English have been required to study these subjects. Since 2015, it has been compulsory for students who have a grade D - now a grade 3 - to study for GCSE rather than another qualification, such as functional maths.

The policy, particularly in maths, has been criticised by the Association of Colleges because of the stress it places on students. There is also concern about the low success rate - only one in four pupils older than 17 achieved a C grade this summer.

Government investment

In the budget last week, the government announced that it was putting £8.5 million into testing “innovative approaches” to improve GCSE maths resit outcomes.

The research, out today, which examined how 38 FE colleges and seven sixth-form colleges are teaching pupils who have been required to resit their GCSE, highlighted that the policy has had a bigger impact on FE colleges than on sixth-form colleges. Providers in the college sector receiving around five times the number of learners who did not achieve an English or mathematics GCSE A* to C, compared to sixth form colleges in 2015-16.  

It concluded that “in the main, there is no ‘best practice’ in implementing the D grade policy. What works for one will not work for another provider.”

But it added there was a lot of good practice in the sector and that the quality of student-teacher relationship was central.

It also found that an effective diagnosis of the pupil’s current ability in English and maths as early as possible was important and that a blanket policy of enrolling all students with a D grade onto GCSE regardless of their knowledge of English or maths may be problematic for some students, who may lack primary school level knowledge.

Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and Instagram, and like Tes on Facebook