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A fond farewell to GCSE coursework

Curriculum Examinations & Qualifications
The GCSE reforms will spell the end of most coursework as part of GCSE examination. Hilary Moriarty can understand why the government and Ofqual have made the move, but wonders what will now cater for students with different talents.

Yes, I remember coursework: one afternoon of heat, the exam train stopped there; it was late June.

Or it may have been July. Certainly by September, we were totally committed: that year’s cohort of year 10s would do an English course that was not 20 per cent coursework, not 50 per cent coursework, but 100 per cent coursework. Yes! All of it!

A timed class exercise was in there somewhere (surely?) but no final, externally set exam. Just a fat file for each candidate of 10 pieces of work covering the range of English tasks – the usual suspects of creative, imaginative, functional, persuasive, factual or fanciful pieces of written work.

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