The impact of the pandemic on student mental health and high absence rates continue to hinder schools’ attempts to support student outcomes, leaders have warned, after GCSE results showed a drop in attainment in maths and English.
School leaders spoke to Tes about the struggles that staff have faced supporting students’ emotional wellbeing and handling attendance issues for this year’s exam cohort, as Year 11 students in England received their GCSE results this week.
The results come after more than three-quarters of teachers and school leaders, responding to a survey for the Association of School and College Leaders, reported seeing poor mental health linked to exam anxiety.
Rob Coles, deputy CEO at Education South West, a multi-academy trust with 15 schools, warned that rising mental health needs among Year 11s can be partially attributed to the Covid pandemic lockdowns, which disrupted these students’ first two years in secondary.
GCSE students’ gaps in learning
“The pivotal grounding work that we usually do in key stage 3 was lost due to the pandemic”, Mr Coles said, adding that this caused a ”challenge for staff”, who have had to adapt to address “significant gaps” in learning.
Mr Coles added that the pandemic years’ “generational impact can’t be underestimated”.
Meanwhile, Jennese Alozie, CEO of University of Chichester Academy Trust, which runs 15 schools in the South East, said that the biggest challenge the trust had faced for this year’s cohort was balancing mental health demands with other school priorities.
And Mark Deans, headteacher at West Bridgford School in the East Midlands, said this particular GCSE year group has taken around “50 to 60 per cent of our school support and resource to try and support them through to the end of their time with us”.
Increased mental health pressures have also led to a rise in GCSE exam access arrangements, or concessions. These are reasonable adjustments that can be made for exam candidates facing difficulties.
Hannah Fahey, headteacher at St Mark’s Academy in South London, said the school has been forced to find funding to hire two psychotherapists and a “range of therapeutic support” to meet students’ increased needs.
Patrick Cozier, headteacher at Highgate Wood School in North London, said that he has introduced more access arrangements since the pandemic - more so for girls than boys.
A rise in mental health issues among female students has been cited as a reason why the gender gap in attainment is shrinking.
“Staff end up spending more time supporting students emotionally than focusing on learning,” Mr Cozier told Tes. His school has also employed more pastoral support officers and counsellors as a result.
Absence ‘the biggest factor’
An increase in anxiety and other mental health conditions has also been seen as a factor behind stubbornly high levels of student absence since the pandemic.
Jonny Uttley, CEO of The Education Alliance multi-academy trust, said he believes “absence is the biggest factor in exam attainment”.
More than a quarter of Year 11s were persistently absent this year, according to recent data.
However, Mr Uttley, who runs 12 schools in Yorkshire and the Humber, warned that “schools cannot mitigate years of disruption caused by Covid”, adding that it feels like the education system has “just forgotten the pandemic”.
Keziah Featherstone, executive head at the Mercian Trust, which has nine schools in the West Midlands, agreed that attendance was the biggest problem facing this year’s GCSE cohort.
“The biggest challenge is that teachers are really at a loss for how to re-engage those that have completely disengaged but are technically still taking the exams and qualifications,” she said.
While Nick Cross, CEO of King’s Group Academies, said that attendance - a “fundamental and basic” part of school - is the biggest concern for his trust and has become a “real strategic priority”.
Work in this area includes “making sure there are regular occasions for accountability on attendance”, said Mr Cross, who runs 14 schools across the South East.
Exam reform ‘should be treated carefully’
The new government has recently launched a curriculum and assessment review, which is being led by Professor Becky Francis.
While Mr Uttley welcomed the review and Ms Francis’ appointment, he said that we must not ”throw the baby out with the bathwater” when it comes to exam reform.
“I support looking at exam reform slowly, carefully and very deliberately,” he said. “My worry is that we move from one system to another and create a load of unintended consequences.”
Ms Featherstone said there needs to be a “rethink” on how we examine core subjects at GCSE, including English and maths.
“GCSE maths is very different to numeracy and functional numeracy, and GCSE English language and literature is very different to being literate, and that just needs to be rethought,” she said.
Concerns over resit ‘affordability’
The number of maths GCSE resit entries increased by more than 30,000 this year compared with 2023, while resit entries for English language rose from 117,155 to 148,569.
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, has called on the new government to rethink “demoralising” and “soul-destroying” compulsory GCSE resits. The NAHT school leaders’ union has also called for the policy to be scrapped.
Mr Cozier said the resit policy needed to be reformed:
“I understand the intention and the logic behind resits, but it needs to be rethought,” he said.
“Students are often reluctant to do the resits, don’t fully commit to the work needed, and hence often don’t improve their grades.”
Mr Cozier also pointed to the additional money that schools have to spend on delivering and staffing resits.
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