Siobhan Costello is a Science Teacher in Birmingham
I have completed 2 qca questionnaires (physics and science) and boy are they long, and actually quite vague.
My feeling is it is like the consultations we have in our school, where they have already made their minds up about what they want to do, but say they’re having a consultation because they have to.
My big worry is BTEC science, that schools choose to do this because it’s easy to pass. It’s criminal that btec puts more people off science than it encourages . I would rather a child studied an engaging GCSE and got an E than did a dull and lifeless BTEC for 2 c’s. But that is the league table performance culture.
While I think that the physics (P3) Edexcel module is very interesting and contemporary, it does not train pupils sufficiently to study physics at advanced level. Also, so much of it is theoretical, that it is difficult for pupils to do practical work. The whole edexcel course does lack practical work. Multiple choice answers are a cop out by the exam board to save them paying people to mark the papers and the IAAs save them money in printing. I really wonder how pupils would cope with what many of us had to do, with having a terminal exam at the end of 2 years that was 2 or more hours long. It would actually be good to see that again. There are not enough long structured answers.