Head Master's Blog - A British Baccalaureate and Maths to 18?

It’s been interesting to read the recent coverage around the emerging plans from the Prime Minster to ensure that all young people study Maths to 18, possibly as part of a new British Baccalaureate, that could see students follow a programme, similar to the International Baccalaureate (IB), with three ‘major’ subjects and three ‘minor’ subjects instead of A Levels.

On the face of it, it seems to make sense. Few could argue that Maths skills are not vital and that the more young people we have with higher-level Maths skills and competence the better. Furthermore, various baccalaureate systems are in operation around the world and are very successful indeed in providing educational breadth and balance across a range of subject areas and academic domains.

However, when one considers the educational priorities of our time, it seems odd to start at the top end of the system with A Level reform. We know, for example, that the early years and foundation stage (EYFS), from birth to five years old, is where investment will have the greatest impact on life chances. Developing world-class EYFS provision that provides every child with the very best start to life is surely more important that reforming a highly regarded A Level system.

Furthermore, if one were to focus on secondary education, then the national SEND crisis would surely be the first core issue to address. And when it comes to qualifications, it has been GCSE reform, rather than A Level reform, that has been at the centre of educational debate recently. There has been a growing movement among a number of independent schools to find alternatives to the content-heavy, terminally assessed monotony of GCSEs.

As one of the founding members of the Schools Directed Course Consortium (SDCC), King’s High has played a leading role in shaping the discussion on GCSE reform, and in providing compelling new KS4 courses including our Global Changemaker Programme and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme.  Schools such as Latymer Upper and Bedales have recently announced moves away from GCSE courses and, whilst we are certainly not planning to ditch GCSEs, we are part of a network of schools thinking and acting innovatively and creatively to provide outstanding learning opportunities for our pupils.

When it comes to A Level reform, it’s natural to look to the IB as a compelling alternative. With a powerful educational philosophy informing the qualification, students study three subjects at ‘higher’ level and three subject at ‘standard level’, with Studies in Language and Literature and Mathematics part of the six mandatory taught areas. Alongside this there is a compulsory ‘core’ which consists of a research project (Extended Essay), Community Action Service (to promote voluntary and community engagement), and Theory of Knowledge (to encourage reflection on the nature of knowledge and critical thinking skills).

As someone who has taught the IB for many years, it undoubtedly has great strengths. The educational vision informing all aspects of the course, the range of methods and tasks used to assess student understanding, and the all-important ‘core’ to promote social responsibility, higher-level research study, and a reflective and critical approach to the acquisition of knowledge is outstanding.

However, having said that, the IB is not for everyone and not without its limitations. For example, the assessment and grading is notoriously erratic (notably more so than GCSE and A Level); and, whilst it is very well-suited to strong academic all-rounders, those with a clear preference and inclination for the sciences, humanities, or languages tend to do less well and struggle to achieve high marks in their weaker areas.

Most notably, the content and student workload on the IB is enormous and the qualification allows little or no time for students to breathe, reflect or consolidate their learning as they try to balance the competing requirements of six academic subjects and a heavy, project-driven core. Unlike A Level pupils, IB students do not have ‘study periods’ through the week and a common complaint is an unmanageable workload. The independence for students to use their study periods effectively is one of the more powerful learning experiences of Sixth Form.

With a diet of three or four A Levels, students and schools have the independence to build a range of valuable courses and experiences around this academic core to develop future-facing skills and knowledge. At King’s High the high majority of students take the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) to work in depth on a research topic or project of their choice. This provides ownership and agency as students follow their interests and embark on university-style study, meeting regularly with a tutor. Naturally, universities love the EPQ and often give lower grade offers to students with a good EPQ.

Our Your Future course works in tandem with our Sixth Form PSHEE course, taught jointly with the boys at Warwick School, to explore topics including practical finance, careers, positive mental health and consent, sex and relationships. Our own King’s Baccalaureate inspires students to structure their co-curricular endeavours around core skills and dispositions to achieve an accredited qualification, whilst our Friday Afternoon Activities Programme enables students to choose from over 70 activities, joint with Warwick School.

Options include our ever-popular Combined Cadet Force, a project to build and race a Formula 24 car, and volunteering to work at Westgate, Coten End and Evergreen Schools, or to support the most vulnerable members of the community via our partnership with Kissing It Better or by working at the local neuro-rehabilitation hospital. Alongside weekly Health, Fitness and Wellbeing sessions and outstanding opportunities in music, drama and sport, our Sixth Form offer is enriching, inspiring and perfectly tailored to the interests and needs of our students.

One of the drawbacks of the Baccalaureate system is that it removes a lot of the choice and ownership from the students to craft their own Sixth Form experience; it removes a lot of the autonomy and independence of schools to develop their own programmes to inspire their pupils. It feeds into one of the great problems of our education system: the tendency towards a one-size-fits-all approach rather than a tailored approach that prioritises individuals through choice, independence and diversity.

We have already seen the impact of the EBacc or English Baccalaureate, a controversial accountability measure for state schools introduced in 2010 which requires students to study at least 7 GCSEs across five areas: English language, English literature, maths, double science or biology, chemistry and physics, history or geography and a language. 

The impact of the EBacc has been damaging, creating an unhelpful hierarchy of subjects, and a consequence has been the rapid erosion of Music, the Arts, and many other ‘smaller’ subjects in schools, including DT, as focus has inevitably narrowed on the core subjects of the EBacc. It has limited choice and, ultimately, imposed uniformity rather than encouraged diversity and, in doing so, it has worked to exclude even higher numbers of students from our education system.

For too long, our education system has prioritised breadth of learning over depth of learning. Of course, breath is very important indeed, especially so in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, but we also know that the highest-performing education systems in the world prioritise depth of learning and do not cram their curricula full of content. In doing so, they allow teachers time to teach, and learners time to learn – teachers then have license to explore content at a deeper level, encouraging deep thinking and genuine, powerful learning.

To my mind, the discussions about A Level reform are at odds with the educational priorities of our time. Early years provision, support for students with SEND, and GCSE reform are far more pressing matters for our attention. And, beyond that, it is my view that students need an increasing level of choice, ownership and agency over what and how they learn – they need to develop specific interests and pursue these. They should embrace academic and vocational courses that they are interested in and have an inclination towards and an aptitude for. In doing this, we can begin to build systems that work for all of our students, rather than imposing systems that will likely only work for a few.

Dr Stephen Burley, Head Master