The current climate on educational qualifications and job prospects, and the influence thatBedalesschool has on this. The hotel was built on the site of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, a bloody milestone along the treacherous road towards universal suffrage. The BBC will suspend the 159-a-year licence fee for two days so people can watch EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Could Nicola Sturgeon return the Stone of Scone for King Charles's coronation as one of Just 11 MINUTES of brisk walking each day is enough to slash your chances of dying early, study reveals. Magnus is enthusiastic about some of the possibilities revealed by schools migration to online learning for example the shared real-time editing of written work using SharePoint. ActorDaniel Day Lewis also attended the school. As the waves break on the sand, so too do the barriers between siblings. He cares for the stray dogs that visit the settlement and plays with the abundance of stones in the old quarry, Deeb accompanies Sara to buy bread from a small shop run from a neighbours home. She is known for Our River.Our Sky (2021), Night Shapes (1999) and Homeland (2011). GU32 2DG, Reception StickyAdvice,International,Advice,Prep,Senior,Advice, StickyLifestyle,Lifestyle,Lifestyle,Lifestyle, StickySEN,Prep,Pre-Prep,SEN,Advice,SEN,Senior,Advice,Advice, StickyInsight,Prep,SEN,Pre-Prep,SEN,Insight, Insight,Pre-Prep,Insight,Prep,Senior,Insight. He says: As we see it, the only remaining value in GCSEs lies in informing A level grade predications for the purpose of university admissions. Magnus Bashaarat Head, Bedales School, Hampshire Sally Dicketts, Chief Executive of Activate Learning Will Goldsmith, Director of Teaching and Learning, Latymer Upper School, London Phil Avery, Director of Education, Bohunt Education Trust Discuss this post Previous Students are telling us the assessment system needs to change 894646. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. Saras family cannot aord to buy luxuries like meat on the $260 per month cash vouchers they receive from UNRWA and therefore their meals only consists of rice, potatoes and salad, Sara is a beneciary of Educate A Child, a programme of the Education Above All Foundation. We can, and must, do better. We would like to express our gratitude to our current Head Mr Steven Winter for his hard work and dedication in helping found MVS. Deserves to be heard by a bigger audience. Here at William Clarence, we haveunparalleledexperience supporting students and their familiesfrom all over the worldin their independent school applications, and helping students achieve their desired placement. Learn what happens once a candidate has a confirmed placefollowing their assessment. In addition, all our Sixth Formers complete a rigorous Professional Skills Programme, a course dedicated to teaching the general skills they need to thrive in the workplace. Learn more about how many nights of the week students stay at the school, and what happens during the weekends if students dont go home. He says: Real-time, three-dimensional contact is irreplaceable, and seeing the reaction and emotion of students in person and the joy when that sacred connection was restored once we opened the school again was incredible. On the flip side, he observes that many of this summers school leavers are planning gap years because the prospect of some undergraduate courses being delivered online in the new university year is so unpalatable. This can be achieved by schools connecting content across subjects and linking it to overarching concepts, engaging questions and real life problems, as we are currently doing at Benenden. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. In an article for The Week Independent Schools Guide (Autumn/Winter 2021), Head of Bedales Magnus Bashaarat discusses educating in the time of COVID and his conviction that face-to-face contact between teachers and students is crucial, and makes the case for assessment reform. However, many heads including some in private schools have said the GCSEs fail to provide a well-rounded education and put too much pressure on students. Pearson consultation | Bedales Assessed Courses | Rethinking Assessment | Magnus Bashaarat, Bedales School With appropriate moderation, this would play to strengths already present in our education system. 2023 Zest Media Publications Limited All Rights Reserved 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX | 0207 704 0588 Most significantly, compulsory GCSEs at 16 ensure all children receive a broad curriculum that sets them up for life. The subjects are diverse science students might want to act or draw; alternatively they may want to deepen their major disciplinary interest through an extended project. After a year when he worked in newspapers (the Observer and The London Evening Standard) he completed a PGCE in English and Drama at King's College, London, and then started his teaching career at Sherborne School in 1992. We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Church Road He says: As we see it, the only remaining value in GCSEs lies in informing A level grade predications for the purpose of university admissions. Samirah "Sam" al-Abbas is the demigod daughter of the Norse God of Mischief Loki and the late Alyesha al-Abbas, the half-sister of Alex Fierro, the valkyrie of Magnus Chase and the main female protagonist in the Norse mythology book series Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. Registered in England No. To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account. Asked whether Bedales could offer its qualifications to other schools, he said thats certainly on the table for the future. Magnus Bashaarat, the head of Bedales School, says 'retro-traditional' GCSEs are outdated By Will Hazell Education Correspondent January 26, 2020 6:00 pm (Updated July 10, 2020 4:51 pm) More. Samirah, her family and her namesake, can trace back her . Privacy Policy. Mr Magnus Bashaarat will commence his role as the new Head Teacher at Maida Vale School as of 24 th April 2023. Left behind | Are left-handed pupils being let down? Another private school head has added its weight to a growing independent school campaign pushing for GCSEs to be replaced with broader, alternative courses. Reputation management expert reveals why it doesn't just happen to 'This is the most ridiculous thing I've seen!' Name of Head: Magnus Bashaarat Address: Church Road, Steep, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 2DG This website uses cookies to improve user experience. Samirah "Sam" al-Abbas is Magnus Chase's Valkyrie and the Muslim demigod daughter of Loki. However, they. I support the ongoing reforms: the overriding effort to further raise standards is a laudable one. The 700-year-old Coronation chair that has been used for the crowning of King Charles has 'jeopardised' the monarchy by meeting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Do we get our 87p back? Sara, 11, is a Syrian refugee living in Lebanons Bekaa Valley in an informal tented settlement. By using our website, you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. are notoriously unreliable, and there is powerful evidence that the status quo does a disservice to applicants from the state sector and disadvantaged families. He has also worked at Stowe as Deputy Head, Eton as a Housemaster and Sherbourne as a Teacher of English and Drama. They leave Bedales well-positioned to meet the changing priorities and requirements of todays higher education and work environments, and I would like to see the same for all of our young people. Rather, Magnus believes we should build on the re-emergence of teacher assessment drawing upon a range of evidence, resulting from the COVIDpandemic and the cancellation of exams. increasingly considered redundant given the raising of the school leaving age to 18, and governments fixation with exams. Bedales comprises three schools situated near Petersfield, Hampshire: Bedales Pre prep, Dunannie (ages 3-8); Bedales Prep, Dunhurst (ages 8-13); and Bedales itself (ages 13-18). DISCLAIMER: I hereby declare that I do not own the. Registered Company no. Writing in The Times, he said he liked the idea of a national education system without the dichotomy between state and independent schools but that the UK had an awfully long way to go before it was ready to integrate the two systems without sacrificing everything good that we do. He has also worked at Stowe as Deputy Head, Eton as a Housemaster and Sherbourne as a . The orthodoxy of deeming some educational subjects worthy (STEM, English etc) and others less so is suspect. A brilliant b side which I consider to be a real forgotten gem. Bedales is situated just one hour's journey from London, and has a linked prep school, Dunhurst and pre-prep, Dunannie. The best seat in the house! Find out about the ratio of national to overseas students and the range of countries that students travel from to attend. By continuing to use this website youare giving consent to cookies being used. Find out whatBedalescandidates are assessed on and how, and at what point before they start school. UK Registered Company, Reg. The head of a private school has said he would rather close down than see it become part of the state system. A leading co-educational day and boarding school for ages 13-18, Bedales offers A levels and GCSEs as well as their own Bedales Assessed Courses. Bedales Head Magnus Basharaat has responded to a major consultation conducted by exam board Pearson Future of Qualifications and Assessment steered by an expert panel including former education secretaries Damian Hinds, Baroness Morris and Lord Blunkett. We ask the heads of two leading schools, is it time to abolish GCSEs? Applying to independent schoolscan vary significantly depending on whichinstitutiona child is hoping to attend, and the process can be both complex and stressful. Currently our. It was Tim's first live gig since lockdown, and he was visibly pleased to be speaking to a real rather than virtual audience. We are currently looking at precisely these issues as we seek to expand our Benenden Diploma, our highly successful curriculum for pupils in Year 7 and 8. I would decline, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Crucially, the authors favoured diverse assessment methodologies. Steep Reforms to university admission must proceed without argument, and once this is done there is no good reason for retaining GCSEs. Magnus concludes: As we consider a world no longer dominated by the threat of COVID, we must aim higher than simply returning to what we knew. Now it is a guided drafting and grading process on a shared online space that cannot get eaten by the dog.. Magnus explains that the school considers the national curriculum and associated qualification regime to be prescriptive, dull, narrow and inadequate, and points to the growing dissatisfaction with GCSEs, increasingly considered redundant given the raising of the school leaving age to 18, and governments fixation with exams. As a country, the challenge is to ensure appropriate vocational routes have equal respect from employers and higher education providers so that the large percentage of 16-year-olds for whom the new GCSEs are still inappropriate or too difficult have something worthwhile to show for their time in school. GU32 2DG, Reception GCSEs have passed their sell-by-date. 'GCSEs are no discriminator. He says: Pupils marked work in Year 12 could be used as the basis for an evidenced portfolio of achievement, and this would include results from any internal school exams. However, they are notoriously unreliable, and there is powerful evidence that the status quo does a disservice to applicants from the state sector and disadvantaged families. Whatever government decides to do next will require energy, and it would be a waste to expend that energy on heading back to where we were a place that fewer and fewer people were happy being. If the government were to follow his lead, he says, we could still prevent a grading disaster next year . She became a Valkyrie, a chooser of the slain, at fourteen when she saved her school from an attacking frost giant. A vocal critic of GCSEs, Mr Bashaarat has previously called them a high stakes pub quiz. Bedales is the first school to be recognised by UCAS as offering its own GCSE-replacement qualification. The educationalist Bill Lucas has written that a focus on STEM subjects at school is not sufficient for would-be-engineers. We encourage our staff and students to be enterprising in all they do and we maintain close ties with regional employers. She attends King Acadamy as a sophomore in Dorchester in Boston, but when duty calls, she puts up a cover story to be . The demise of the AS-Level freed up time that we have used to develop a programme of teacher-designed diploma courses. Magnus Bashaarat told i that retro-traditional GCSEs were terribly past their sell-by-date. The full Bedales response to the Pearson consultation can be read here. We are now working hard to expand this connective approach to learning into the GCSE years. Magnus Bashaarat, outgoing head of Milton Abbey [to become head of Bedales], believes that moving away from the nine or ten GCSEs path bears genuinely fruitful results. At last months party conference, Labour voted to scrap private schools, redistribute their assets among state schools and end their charitable status and tax privileges. It was Saras rst time on an escalator and, after being cautious at rst, she soon found her feet and was leading her family around the city with condence, When she eventually leaves Lebanon to continue her studies and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, she imagines the cities will be big and beautiful just like Beirut, Ali and Sara have never seen the sea, let alone stood on its shores and played in the shallow water. By Magnus Bashaarat, Head of Bedales In a recent article by Haroon Siddique in The Guardian, Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner expressed concern that Tory education reforms are putting state school pupils at a disadvantage compared to those educated in independent schools. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. 21/09/2021 14:19. I agree, Undergraduate scholarships, bursaries & awards, Postgraduate scholarships, bursaries & awards, Research scholarships, bursaries & awards, International scholarships, bursaries & awards, Faculty of Business, Law and Digital Technologies research, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences research, Faculty of Education, Health & Social Care, Faculty of Business and Digital Technologies, University of Winchester Lucas suggests that other subjects matter too in helping to facilitate the necessary habits of mind. The head of a famously progressive private school has said he would rather shut down than integrate into the state system. Oscar Cainer reveals all. She dreams of having a nicer home, She spends almost all her time in the tent when not at school: her brothers Ali and Deeb wont let her play football with them, Hadi, 2, is taught some basics of English by Sara to prepare him for enrolment into an UNRWA school when he is 6. She is currently engaged to Amir Fadlan. Magnus has been Head of Bedales Schools since September 2018. But Mr Bashaarat condemned the state systems focus on the stultifying effects of competitive examinations and the importance of social background to academic achievement. As well as core curriculum subjects, she is also receiving psychosocial support to assist her with any trauma she may have been exposed to while eeing their homes from the civil war in Syria, Sara and her family visit Beirut on our nal day in Lebanon. The school (pictured) advertises itself as being 'different' from the schools of its time, having been founded in 1893, Mr Bashaarat, whose school's alumni include presenter Kirstie Allsopp (left) and singer Lily Allen (right), said Bedales could not become subject to the national curriculum or 'policymakers' preoccupations' with competitive exams and rote learning, He called the conversation about integration 'timely and necessary', but added:'We in the UK have an awfully long way to go before schools such as mine might operate in mainstream education without sacrificing everything good that we do.'. Doing away with GCSEs could mean thousands of young people leaving school without qualifications, which would be a deeply retrograde step unless there was a viable alternative. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF. Sara can see across the Bekaa Valley to the mountains, beyond which is Syria and the distant memories of the old life they had, Sara is keen to leave the tent, which leaks water from the roof when it rains and in the freezing cold winter months the snow drifts in. Established in 1893, Bedales was Read more . I would rather we shut our doors,' Mr Bashaarat said. The Bedales Enrichment Programme is designed to both complement and offer contrast to traditional A-Level choices. It recommended replacing GCSEs and A-Levels with a diploma covering both academic and vocational pathways, allowing for their combination. To build a broader coalition of support for exam reform from like-minded educationalists, politicians and business people, Bedales has played a central role in founding the Rethinking Assessment group. Hampshire Headteacher Magnus Bashaarat has spurned GCSEs for alternatives that are largely teacher-assessed. The problem is that secondary level education has failed to keep pace with the vision and ambition of universities such as these. Predictions for the future of GCSE and ALevel gradesfollowing the coronavirus pandemic. "Reflecting over the summer" reads as code for 'jumping before he was pushed'. Steep Petersfield We all need to work towards this together. The start of the pandemic saw some independent schools delivering their curricula online to a paying customer base beyond their usual rolls. A large number of students change school at 16, and to proceed without any qualifications would not be helpful for the next establishment they enter, whether this is a school, a Sixth Form college or a further education college. How did Russia lose HALF of its 45,000 elite paratroopers in just seven months? At Bedales, we had been less nervous than others of the damage the Ofqual algorithm might be able to inflict on our GCSE results, because . Rishi Sunak looked like he had won the lottery. 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