Scrapping resits is the wrong thing to do for learners

What example are we setting to young people if we cut and run on improving their life chances because it’s ‘too hard’? asks David Murray

What example are we setting to young people if we cut and run on improving their life chances because it’s ‘too hard’? asks David Murray

8 Sep 2024, 5:00

The tears have dried. The shock has faded. The photos of students jumping in glee are, if we’re honest, best forgotten. Everyone has moved on from GCSEs. Everyone, that is, except the thousands who will need to resit them.

So many of them fail that we shouldn’t put them through this, say the Association of Colleges and ASCL. They would like to see the policy scrapped. It’s well-meant, no doubt, but as a resit teacher, I dissent from their opinion. 

I sympathise with the view. After all, this year’s benchmark for GCSE English resits at 17+ is 20.9 per cent, against an overall English pass rate of 61.6 per cent. It seems to make sense to cut our losses. But it doesn’t.   

In our college in Stoke this year, our English resit pass rate was 63.3 per cent. Extrapolating, that is equivalent to a whole cohort pass rate of 80-85 per cent over two years. Include those who never resat at all and we’re still probably at around 75 per cent. That is ridiculously high.

It is also entirely predictable. We do it again and again, year after year. And this in a city which has perennially had a problem with pass rates. A population that’s been written off again and again. We do not think we are wrong in saying that our Stoke students consistently have the best English resit pass rates in the whole country.

Did our students want to resit English? No! Would they have opted to if they’d had a choice? Never. They did it because they had to. And now look at them.

Some have progressed onto level 3 courses. Others have moved on to degrees which would otherwise have been inaccessible to them. I would not want anyone to take that away from them. 

We should never leave our young people in their failure

We all know that there is a hidden curriculum behind what we teach. A while ago, resilience was the buzzword. Resilience. Tenacity. Determination. Character. Grit. Our students do not just walk away with a well-won qualification. They walk away with character. I’d swear they even walk away taller.

They come to us with crushed dreams, burning disappointment and bruised self-esteem, but they leave us knowing they are better than they were told. They walk away with far more than a pass mark. They leave with a life lesson: They failed once, yes, but then overcame.

And if that’s the lesson, then consider what future students will learn if we cut and run: it was too hard, so we walked away.

There are ways to raise aspirations and the resit pass rate. They aren’t magic or arcane; we simply give them our best. If you come and visit, I dare say you won’t be surprised by us or our students. But come back on results day and you will be as surprised as they are themselves. 
 
So we cannot take this chance away from them. By forcing them to resit, we might be delaying their progress. We might even be frustrating them. But we would do them a disservice by taking this opportunity to prove themselves away. Some people simply need more time.

We should never leave our young people in their failure. (And whatever you may say, they themselves will always call it a failure.) Surely we should teach them that they are more than an initial stumble?

So we will not be advocating writing students off and giving up on them. Why would we ever do that? Some of these students have been written off all their lives. We refuse to perpetuate that. 

We will show them who we know them to be. And we will keep on making them resit English. I know that most of them will pass, whatever they believe at the start. Because they always do. Our students are their own proof. 

Every single year, I see previously jaded and broken students leaving college like toddlers skipping from playgroup, bursting with joy and full of surprise. And that is worth the world. It’s certainly worth the work.

As a sector, we may not yet be delivering on the policy’s promise, but we deserve better than our representatives throwing the towel in on our behalf.

Latest education roles from

Chief Education Officer (Deputy CEO)

Chief Education Officer (Deputy CEO)

Romero Catholic Academy Trust

Director of Academy Finance and Operations

Director of Academy Finance and Operations

Ormiston Academies Trust

Principal & Chief Executive

Principal & Chief Executive

Truro & Penwith College

Group Director of Marketing, Communications & External Engagement

Group Director of Marketing, Communications & External Engagement

London & South East Education Group

Sponsored posts

Sponsored post

Project power: ASDAN expands its qualifications portfolio

From 2026, ASDAN’s planned Foundation and Higher Project Qualifications will sit alongside its Extended Project Qualification[CM1] , creating a complete...

Advertorial
ATAs

Spotlight on excellence: Nominations now open for the Apprenticeship & Training Awards 2026

Nominations are open for the 2026 Apprenticeship & Training Awards, celebrating outstanding employers and providers with national recognition, a...

FE Week Reporter
Sponsored post

Funding Adult Green Skills

New sources of funding are available to finance the delivery of green skills to all learners. Government policy is...

Tyler Palmer
Sponsored post

Plan for change funding to drive green construction skills

The government has launched a new plan for change to address the skills deficit in the construction industry, providing...

Advertorial

More from this theme

resits

EEF splashes record cash on resits research

Nearly £1.3m committed for post-16 English and maths trials

Anviksha Patel
Colleges, resits

AQA to launch free digital maths tests for GCSE resitters

But plans to introduce on-screen exams delayed

Freddie Whittaker
Maths, resits

‘Groundbreaking’ GCSE maths resit trial gets cash injection

Funding aims to recruit 160 teachers to partake in next phase of study

Anviksha Patel
resits

GCSE maths resit pass rate lower than pre-pandemic

But performance in English re-takes continues to rise

Freddie Whittaker

Your thoughts

Leave a Reply