Wellington to step off GCSE 'treadmill'

A LEADING private school is set to abandon the GCSE amid claims it is too "formulaic" and boring.

Dr Anthony Seldon, the master of Wellington College in Berkshire, is consulting parents about a plan to enter 16-year-old pupils for the Middle Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate.

He said that he was losing faith in the GCSE system to promote stimulating and exciting lessons and that studying GCSEs was like being on a treadmill.

"Pupils start their course and within 12 weeks they have to move on to the next module. It becomes all about moving on - that's not education. There is no time for thinking or creativity," he said.

More than 150 state and independent schools across Britain offer the IB diploma as an alternative to A level. The MYP, however, is available in only six international schools and one state school - Dartford Grammar School for Boys.