Heads slam ‘unfair’ baccalaureate system

Teenagers with some of the best GCSE results in the country are classed as failures because they have not passed a new qualification, London headteachers said today.

Hundreds of pupils scored top marks in "rigorous" subjects but won't be given the English baccalaureate introduced by the Government because of technicalities, they said.

More than 65,000 pupils in London failed to pass the "English bac", which recognises students who pass five GCSEs in English, maths, science, a language and either history or geography.

Teachers are furious because the Government brought in the qualification retrospectively — after pupils had chosen subjects and taken exams.

None of the 127 pupils who took GCSEs at the £13,000-a-year City of London boys' school last year passed the qualification, and the school appeared at the bottom of league tables.

All pupils at the school take IGCSEs, which some consider to be more difficult than GCSEs because there is no coursework, but the exam board used is not recognised in league tables.

Headteacher David Levin said: "We are knocked out on two counts — firstly we do IGCSEs, and secondly we offer humanities which do not count, such as religious studies.

"But every pupil takes 12 subjects at IGCSE, which is more than any school in the country.

"I would argue that they are more academic. They are based on exams — it is sudden death at the end of year 11 and boys prefer that. Students have to remember two years' worth of information. We hate coursework because it is just jumping through hoops."

Mr Levin has written to the Government asking for more humanity subjects to be included in the English bac, and for all IGCSEs to count.

City of London pupil Tom Davidson, 16, from Highgate, scored 12 A* grades at IGCSE, including Latin, Ancient Greek, maths, English and physics, but missed out on the English bac because he was examined by the Edexcel exam board rather than Cambridge Assessment.

He said: "I do think that the way the English baccalaureate has been introduced so suddenly is unfair on schools.

"I'm a bit miffed that my school will be looked down on because none of us got it."

Julian Ward, associate headmaster at St Michael's Catholic grammar school in north Finchley, said the English bac penalises students who take vocational subjects, even though 95 per cent of students at his school were awarded the qualification, more than anywhere else in London.

He added: "Most grammar schools already insist that pupils do subjects in all of these areas. Our parents already know that we encourage our pupils to excel in them. It is probably unnecessary to doubly award them.

"I am not sure it adds an extra academic credential."

Sir Michael Wilshaw, principal of Mossbourne Academy in Hackney, one of the most improved schools in London according to league tables, welcomed the new qualification.

But Sir Michael added: "The Government should also introduce a vocational qualification. There will be a proportion of pupils for whom an academic curriculum is not appropriate.

"We need to design a rigorous vocational qualification which is not just a watered down academic programme."