Yorkshire school to lead way in exams reform

Andrew Chubb, principal of the Archbishop Sentamu Academy is driving the development of the Modern Baccalaureate – a new qualification being launched at an education conference next month which could transform the way pupils from the age of four to 18 are taught.

It is already being used by almost 20 pilot schools nationally and will be promoted to head teachers at the National College for School Leadership conference.

The qualification has been developed in response to the Government’s English Baccalaureate (E-Bacc), launched by Education Secretary Michael Gove, which is awarded to pupils who achieve at least six GCSE C grades in subjects comprising English, maths, two sciences, a modern language and either history or geography.

To achieve the Modern Baccalaureate pupils also have to achieve exam success but it is awarded at different levels depending on the qualifications pupils earn.

Mr Chubb said: “One of the problems with the E-Bacc is that it is a threshold qualification. Once a pupil achieves a C they have got it and yet that will not actually represent a good achievement for some pupils.”

To ensure all pupils are pushed to reach their potential the Modern Baccalaureate, or “ModBac” will be awarded at four different levels: pass, merit, distinction and star distinction.

The Modbac also has three elements to it so that schools can measure the success of pupils in areas outside of exam success.

The core programme of the Modbac recognises pupils success at GCSE – or equivalent subjects. Unlike the E-Bacc all GCSE subjects are included although pupils do need to pass both English and maths.

Five Cs at GCSE will earn a pass, eight C grades achieve a merit, five As including English and maths and three Bs will gets pupils a distinction while five A* grades including English and maths and another three As gets the top achievement of a star distinction.

The Modbac also includes an honours programme and a skills passport.

The honours programme encourages pupils to build their confidence and character through work in ICT, foreign languages, internationalism, community or enterprise work or an extended academic project to develop their independent learning skills.

The skills passport element of the Modbac allows schools to record the work pupils have done to make themselves more employable.

Mr Chubb said: “It is something which businesses are consistently saying to us. They want pupils to be reliable, to be smart, to turn up on time, to know how to smile. A senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers who is one of our governors was telling me recently that this is something we should be doing more.”

At the end of their GCSE pupils receive a Modbac certificate which includes a digital QR scan – a barcode style scanning device which will link to a database of their work. This will allow an employer to scan the certificate and see what the pupil has done.

The three elements of the Modbac are separate and pupils do not need to achieve in all three areas to receive the certificate.

Mr Chubb said the idea of the qualification was to “create an expectation that all pupils should receive a broad and balanced curriculum” while meeting Government league table targets.

Critics of the GCSE league tables and the minimum targets set for schools – who are currently expected to get at least 35 per cent of pupils to achieve five good grades at GCSE including English and maths – say it narrows education and leads to teachers teaching to the test.

The ModBac aims to ensure that areas which are important to schools outside of exam success can be formally recognised through an established qualification.

It is being aimed at pupils in the final stages of their secondary school education.

There are also plans to extend this throughout school life with a series of certificates which measure pupils success, progress and extra curricular work.

The idea is for a mybac for pupils in the first three years of education, a minibac for seven to nine year-olds and a midbac which would assess pupils over their transition from primary school to secondary school. Mr Chubb said this would not only assess pupils attainment but also the progress they had made as they move between schools.