What colleges want from English and maths stepping stone qualifications

This year, more than 179,000 16-year-olds finished Year 11 still needing to improve their results in one or both subjects. Without that all-important grade 4 they are expected to continue studying one or both, and many will retake the GCSE at colleges. Around 60,000 of them will be successful in gaining grade 4 in one or both subjects.

The issue of how best to support college students retaking their GCSE English and/or maths is hotly debated, but there is agreement that good levels of competency and fluency in English and maths are key to students’ future progression, citizenship and employment prospects. Students often start their retake programme feeling demoralised and disengaged, which can hold back their progress. They are also more likely to be experiencing greater material disadvantage compounded by a sense of failure.

For many students at this level, the steps to progression can seem too big. We have to start where they are and value and recognise their progress. The  development of new ‘stepping stone’ qualifications for students who leave school with a GCSE grade 2 or below, which was recommended by the curriculum and assessment review (CAR), was the subject of a recent DfE consultation. An Ofqual consultation on the detail is expected shortly.

The retake discussion can sometimes feel polarised between the ‘GCSE at any cost’ and a ‘there must be better way’ positions. This is why we decided to survey both teachers and leaders across England, in partnership with Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) and the FE Literacy Movement. We wanted to establish whether there is any consensus around key aspects of these proposals.

The survey drew 310 responses from colleges across all the English regions, sorted into two groups: 224 individual English and maths practitioners submitting their own views, and 86 principals or other senior leaders on behalf of their college. There was broad alignment between the views of principals and practitioners and the survey found that both groups overwhelmingly support:

•  The aim to address student disengagement, build confidence and support achievement (98 per cent support).
• A modular structure (89 per cent) with no more than three or four modules (79 per cent) to allow students to experience success in smaller steps than in a GCSE, and with credit gained for each module (90 per cent).
• The need for specific resources, guidance and staff development (97 per cent).

Respondents highlighted issues of assessment, progression, student engagement and practicability. For example, some respondents felt it was important to “keep the number of modules low to avoid excessive assessments” and to “combine modular assessment with a summative element”.

Many respondents referred to motivation and engagement: “The biggest issue we face is disengagement… we need to break the pattern of failure,” said one.

Many also emphasised the case for a stepped, modular approach to “help learners feel a sense of achievement”, and “to experience more immediate success”.

Providing stepping stones is what we do in colleges; everything we offer is a step towards something else, whether that’s employment, higher level qualifications or further skills development. A good stepping stone should help build confidence and mastery and lead somewhere useful. It should value the incremental steps towards a common goal and ensure that no one is excluded, segregated or stuck on a road to nowhere.

College English and maths staff work incredibly hard to rebuild students’ confidence and get them back on track. These are the people who will need to make stepping stones work for students, they know that with encouragement, structured support and consistent feedback within a positive institutional culture, these students can succeed. They deserve the best possible tools, including qualifications which recognise every step of student progress from GCSE grade 1 towards grade 4 and beyond.

Stepping stones will not solve the retake challenge on their own. But it seems that the college staff who will be delivering them feel that these qualifications could play a useful role as part of an effective national English and maths upskilling strategy.