Teenagers across the UK braced for A-level results
EB News: 16/08/2018 - 08:09
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers are bracing themselves for their A-level results, with exam regulator Ofqual promising that standards will be held steady this year.
Having moved away from coursework to solely exam based results in England, and with many saying that the new grading boundaries may have made examinations more difficult, the exam regulator has said that students will not lose out amid the changes.
Amongst the changes, A-levels have been separated from AS-levels which has allowed tye majority of schools to drop the old system whereby students tended to drop their 'weakest' subject following the first year of post-GCSE study.
From 08:00 on 16 August, students will discover whether they have been accepted into their preferred universities, before collecting their results from their school or college. According to UCAS, one in eight people were accepted to full-time university courses last year via clearing.
In terms of result, last year saw boys perform better than girls for the first time in 17 years, while grades for the 13 reformed subjects experienced a slkight fall.
Job adverts for secondary school teaching roles have dropped to their lowest level in nine years, raising fresh concerns about teacher recruitment in England.
The government has announced the locations of 19 new Technical Excellence Colleges, backed by £175 million investment in skills training in priority areas.
New research suggests that eight out of 10 people (80%) back banning cars in streets around schools to encourage children to travel by healthier alternatives.
The government is proposing that schools appoint a lead governor with designated responsibility for school food, as part of its reforms to school food standards.