Remembering GCSEs: a milestone in Cumbrian children's education
UVHS student Hannah Roper (16) from Ulverston was anticipating 11 passes after studying for her GCSEs (Image: Harry Atkinson) In 2006, we reported that teenager Rhiannon Monckton, 15, who was taking GCSEs in maths, physics and chemistry, was hoping to follow in her dad's footsteps by pursuing a career in the nuclear industry.
Billie Little (left) and Chloe Gallagher, of Newman Catholic School both passed 10 GCSEs (Image: Newsquest) Rhiannon, a pupil at Nelson Thomlinson School, spent two weeks learning about engineering during a work experience placement at nuclear decommissioning company REACT Engineering.
Nicole Wilson from Walney got her GCSE results on her 16th birthday (Image: Newsquest) Her father Nigel was a press officer at BNFL's Sellafield plant near Whitehaven. Rhiannon, of Allerby, Aspatria, said: 'I want to be a chemical engineer when I've finished all my studies so the two weeks at REACT have been really useful.'
James Hemsworth and Laura Currie deliver webchat GCSE tuition (Image: Newsquest) Chartered chemical engineer Paul Botteril, REACT's operations manager, said: 'Rhiannon was very interested in what we do and she got a real insight into the working world. More and more girls are looking for jobs as engineers.'
Sophie Bell, 16, of Lowca Lane, Seaton, and Elliot Hughes, 16, of Arlecdon, celebrate their record-breaking GCSE results (Image: Newsquest) The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. However, private schools in Scotland often choose to follow the English GCSE system.
Millom School retiring headteacher Les Higgins delivers the 2006 GCSE results to his year 11 pupils (Image: Newsquest) Each GCSE qualification is offered as a specific school subject, with the most commonly awarded ones being English literature, English language, mathematics, science (combined and triple), history, geography, art, design and technology (D&T), business studies, economics, music, and modern foreign languages (Spanish, French and German).
Richard Rose Central Academy pupils assembled a skeleton as revision for their PE GCSEs (Image: Newsquest)
The Department for Education has drawn up a list of core subjects known as the English Baccalaureate for England based on the results in eight GCSEs, which include both English language and English literature, mathematics, science (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science), geography or history, and an ancient or modern foreign language.
Millom School pupils Hannah Skeen and Gavin Stewart both passed 12 GCSEs (Image: Newsquest) Studies for GCSE examinations take place over a period of two or three academic years (depending upon the subject, school, and exam board). They usually start in year nine or Year 10 for the majority of pupils, with around two mock exams normally being sat during the first half of Year 11.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
How do students feel about phone bans? UW survey first to offer insight on policies
When the Peninsula School District implemented one of Washington's first bans on cell phones in the classroom two years ago, Keyna Houston said it could not have come soon enough. 'I was like thank the Lord,' the Gig Harbor High School English teacher, told Gig Harbor Now and the Kitsap Sun last year. 'Finally I don't have to fight this battle on my own.' Unsurprisingly, teachers have had by far the most positive reaction to these policies, reporting less stress, better ability to manage their classrooms and perceived social benefits for their students, according to new research out of the University of Washington. The unpublished study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, offers the first systematic look at how teachers, parents and students in Washington are feeling about these policies. Districts moved to curtail phone use in recent years, after reporting unprecedented levels of disruptive behaviors and worsening mental health among students following their return from the pandemic closures. Following Peninsula's lead, all schools in Kitsap County have put some restrictions in place over the last year, as have others statewide. UW researchers surveyed over 5,000 students, 220 teachers and 480 parents across six districts, including Peninsula, said lead author and assistant psychology professor Lucía Magis-Weinberg, who studies how adolescence has been altered in the digital era. Students were less enthusiastic about the bans, with the vast majority saying they did not perceive an impact. According to Magis-Weinberg, 70% of students said the policies had 'no-impact' on their ability to pay attention, opposed to 20% who said it had a positive impact. A majority also said it had no impact on their well-being. 'That was very surprising to me,' Magis-Weinberg said of the findings. 'I would have expected them to be against the policies and to be quite negative about them.' How effective these bans are at achieving their prescribed goals, and what type of restrictions are most effective, remain open questions. There is no question that phones can be a big source of distraction, so when implemented well these bans can encourage better habits, Magis-Weinberg said. At the same time, they need to be tailored to the needs of each district and ideally created with the input from students and staff. Both students and teachers prefer consistency in application of these restrictions, with top-down rules provided by administrations that are aligned between teachers and classrooms. When decisions about phones are left up to the teacher 'no one likes that,' Magis-Weinberg said. It tends to pit teachers against each other. Removing phones in isolation was not enough to promote social interaction, researchers found. Schools still need to introduce alternative ways for students to connect, through activities or games. Bans also did not appear to produce huge improvements in academics or mental health outcomes, but Magis-Weinberg said they seem to have introduced incremental improvements, particularly for teachers. These policies allowed teachers to shift from 'referee to coach,' she said. They can now encourage better digital habits rather than having to take punitive actions against students. 'Anything that helps teachers be less stressed, feel more effective and changes the relationship from policing to actually having time to teach and connect with students, I think that's important," she said. Middle school teachers also reported that students seemed more relaxed and had returned to more 'goofy' and 'playful' behavior. Students had become so concerned with how they were perceived, teachers reported, with fears that someone could record or take a picture of them changing how they behaved. 'Even if a school is not implementing a ban,' she said, 'I think it's a clear takeaway that (schools) should really be very very strict about recording.' This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Student opinions on phone bans in school part of new Washington study Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
12 hours ago
- Newsweek
Labrador Owner Asks Dog a Question About Tail, Shock at What He Does
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A chocolate Labrador has melted hearts on TikTok after perfectly responding to his owner's question without even lifting his head. The August 16 clip shared by owner Caitlyn Stakeley (@caitlyn_stakeley) quickly went viral, racking up 3.2 million views at the time of writing. The dog called Joey is seen curled up on a sofa with his head buried in a pillow. From behind the camera, his owner asks: "Can you wag your tail?" The Lab looks up briefly, then obliges—gently wagging his tail while remaining comfortably in place. The video, captioned "He 100% speaks English," has already been liked more than 614,000 times. Many viewers chimed in to share their own experiences with dogs' apparent language comprehension. One user wrote: "He doesn't speak English. He understands it." Another agreed, adding: "Told my dog I would give him a special dinner (Freshpet) last weekend but I forgot and gave him kibble. He refused to eat until he got his special dinner. They understand us perfectly." A third offered a theory: "I saw a theory that dogs can understand words but not full-on sentences. They just use their own version of a thought process by comparing words we say to certain actions. Like if we say 'want to go outside,' they use the word 'outside' as a way of saying 'we are leaving the house to be outside.'" What Science Says About Dogs and Language A stock image of a brown labrador lying on the grass. A stock image of a brown labrador lying on the grass. Maya Shustov/iStock / Getty Images Plus The commenters may be onto something—science shows that dogs are remarkably skilled at picking out words that matter to them, though with some limits. Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest measured the brain activity of 17 awake dogs as they listened to familiar instruction words alongside nonsense words. They discovered that dogs could reliably tell real words apart from completely different nonsense sounds, but struggled when those nonsense words closely resembled the real ones. This indicates that dogs focus on broad sound patterns rather than the finer phonetic details humans rely on, which may explain why their vocabularies remain relatively small. At the same time, researchers have also examined the role of dog-directed speech (DDS)—the high-pitched, exaggerated tone owners often use, similar to baby talk. A recent study, published in Animal Cognition on April 12 and led by experts from the Universities of Lincoln and Sussex in England and Jean Monnet University in France, found that while dogs responded more strongly to meaningful words when spoken in DDS prosody, they were still able to detect important cues—like their names—even when delivered in a flat monotone. Taken together, the two studies suggest that dogs don't need dramatic tone to understand us, but it helps grab their attention and reinforce meaning. Their strength lies in recognizing key words that signal action or reward, not in parsing the finer details of speech or grasping full sentences. Newsweek reached out to @caitlyn_stakeley for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Period pain and heavy bleeding linked with lower school attendance and GCSE results
Menstrual cycles are experienced by roughly half of the population for half of their lives. The experiences of menstruation on teenagers are incredibly important, especially as young people are starting periods earlier. Our research shows that this impact extends to their school attendance – and GCSE results. Previous studies have reported that many young people take time off school and struggle to concentrate in school because of difficult experiences related to menstruation. However, the role of specific period symptoms and their effect on exam performance and attainment are not well understood. Our recent study examined whether menstrual pain and heavy bleeding – an under-researched symptom – may have implications for school attendance and attainment. Menstrual-related pain and heavy bleeding are commonly experienced menstrual symptoms. For many, these symptoms may be minor and have few consequences. For others they can be severe and have a significant impact on daily life. Normalisation of these symptoms makes it difficult for people, especially young people, to identify whether their symptoms are problematic. Societal pressures to hide or conceal menstruation and menstrual stigma also foster feelings of shame, making it challenging to have conversations about periods or ask for help. As a result, many people struggle with menstrual symptoms that affect their health and wellbeing. We conducted research using data from the Children of the 90s study, which has followed a group of children in the UK from birth into adulthood. In this study, 2,698 teenagers who experienced periods between the ages of 13 and 16 were asked about their experiences of heavy or prolonged bleeding and menstrual-related pain. We linked this information with data from the Department for Education about the amount of school absences the young people in the study had in year 11. This is the final year of compulsory schooling in the UK, when 15- and 16-year-olds take their GCSE exams. We also linked it with their GCSE results. Over a third of the teenagers (36%) reported heavy or prolonged bleeding. We found that participants reporting heavy or prolonged bleeding were absent from school 1.7 additional days across year 11. They scored roughly one grade lower in their GCSEs, and were 27% less likely to achieve five A*-C passes including maths and English compared to those without heavy bleeding. More than half (56%) of the teenagers reported menstrual pain. We found that those with pain were absent from school 1.2 additional days in year 11. They were 16% less likely to achieve five A*-C passes compared to those without pain. These relationships were observed after accounting for other possible causes including ethnicity, socioeconomic position, childhood adversity, age at first period, mother and child mental health, body mass index and intelligence quotient (IQ). Wider implications The results from this study fit with many previous studies that have shown menstrual issues can result in more absences and difficulties focusing and concentrating. They also provide further evidence that qualifications can be affected. This shows that menstrual difficulties can restrict the ability of young people to reach their full potential, with possible implications on access to further education or employment prospects. A recent report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, a higher education thinktank, has found similar effects on absences at university: it estimates that an average student could miss up to six weeks across a three-year university course. Other studies have shown these effects can persist in the workplace, including a large-scale study in the Netherlands and research on endometriosis by the Office for National Statistics. The findings that those with heavy or painful periods, on average, were absent from school more and scored lower in their GCSEs are not due to different capabilities among these teenagers. Better treatments and support are needed for people who suffer with these symptoms, as they can lead to issues such as worse sleep quality, fatigue and iron-deficiency anaemia. This can make it more challenging to attend and perform well in school. Society in general is also not designed to provide enough support to those who menstruate, especially those who suffer with problematic symptoms. Menstrual health literacy is generally low in teenagers. However, this also persists in adults and even medical professionals. This means it is challenging for young people to identify symptoms. If they do identify them and seek help, they may often be met with attitudes that invalidate their symptoms, discouraging them from continuing to seek help. Teenagers can face challenges managing menstruation at school. These may include restrictions on when they can go to the toilet, or inaccessibility of period products. This can lead to many feeling that school is not a safe and supportive environment when menstruating. They may end up missing school entirely, or struggling to concentrate if they do attend school due to worries about managing and coping with menstruation and associated symptoms. Better support is needed for young people who menstruate and who struggle with problematic menstrual symptoms, so they are able to achieve their full academic potential. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Gemma Sawyer is supported by a Wellcome Trust PhD studentship in Molecular, Genetic and Lifecourse Epidemiology (ref: 218495/Z/19/Z). The funders had no role in study design or analysis. Gemma Sharp receives funding from the Medical Research Council (MR/Z504634/1).
