Category Archives: Sec Ed
I helped ignite the exams marking debate – in 1998!
In 1998, I helped to ignite a debate about marking standards in examinations – a debate that has never really gone away.
I am done with apple-picking now
SecEd columnist Hilary Moriarty steps down this summer after eight years working at the heart of the boarding school community. She gives her farewell thoughts, including on the future of boarding education.
A fond farewell to GSCE coursework
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.
Do you want grades, or an education?
Everyone is demanding grades – from politicians to business leaders and of course parents – and most schools are delivering, but is this at the expense of education? Hilary Moriarty asks the question.
Paris's lesson is a lesson for us all
The experience of the UK’s first youth crime commissioner is a lesson in the dangers of social media that all our students – and teachers – must learn, says Hilary Moriarty.
Exams – are we too open with teachers?
I began examining – English Lang and Lit – in the early days of what became 10 years out of the classroom, raising a family. I was able to mark when babies slept, and 300 or 400 scripts were actually easier to squeeze into three weeks then than they were when I was back in… Read More »
Taking the lead: board meeting
Headteachers of both state and private boarding schools held their annual gathering recently. What do you need for a good conference? A good hotel, great food, convivial company and star speakers. Apart from losing education secretary Michael Gove at the last minute, the Boarding Schools’ Association, of which 38 are state boarding schools, did well… Read More »
On your side: when does the tutoring stop?
Recent news reports of university students employing coaches or tutors to help them knock their large quantities of undigested research into presentable essays and dissertations ring alarm bells. The reports suggest that this might be okay for the kind of written work undergraduates have to produce routinely, but concern should surely be expressed if this… Read More »
Sec Ed Guest editorial: Right you 'orrible lot
The focus on discipline in schools sparked by the summer’s riots has been all-to predictable and no doubt has bumped Troops to Teachers, one of the coalition’s flagship policy ideas, up the agenda again. It’s amazing how often at the Boarding Schools’ Association we receive phone calls from parents close to tears and declaring: “We… Read More »