Latest news with #Alevel
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Sixth formers missing out on French and Spanish
Sixth formers are missing out on French and Spanish at A-level because there are not enough teachers, a poll has revealed. The survey, by the education charity Teach First, found that nearly a quarter of schools in the poorest areas of Britain do not offer French A-level, while 17 per cent do not offer Spanish or music. The charity said a shortage of trained teachers has locked pupils out of many opportunities. Teacher vacancies in England have been at their highest level since records began, according to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). The findings followed union claims that the Government remains on track to miss its manifesto commitment to recruit 6,500 new teachers, funded by a VAT raid on private schools. The poll also found almost a third of schools in deprived communities do not offer computer science A-level because of a lack of teachers trained in the subject.
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
I won't be taking exam leave to support my teens – just hovering, worrying and driving them mad
W hen I was doing GCSEs and my sister was doing A-levels, we were on our way to school for my physics and her maths exams when we had a huge fight at the bus stop. I can't remember what it was about, but she definitely started it. I took a different route and was 20 minutes late for my exam while she took the original bus and spent the first quarter of her paper getting asked by teachers if she knew where I was. The beauty of this story is that I got an A and she got a B, but the relevant bit is that our mum didn't know any of this – didn't know we'd fought, didn't know I'd been late, didn't know my sister had got distracted, didn't know why I was laughing so hard on the third Thursday of August. Parents are now asking for 'exam leave' from work to get through their children's GCSEs and A-levels. The sheer emotional investment – never mind the time, energy and organisation involved these days – is extraordinary. So I have to note from the outset that this is a choice: there was a time in living memory when parents just left kids to it, and we all survived. Nonetheless, it doesn't feel like a choice. They say a family is only as happy as its least happy member, and if you just break down 'happiness' into some of its components – leisure time, mental peace, self-esteem – you'll have an idea why nobody in a GCSE household can relax until 19 June. First, these public exams seem more consequential, and the standards higher than ever: there are universities that won't even look at you unless you have straight 9s. There are jobs, PhD courses and scholarships choosing between two candidates on minute differences in their GCSE results. Or that's the rumour, anyway – there's no way to actually bottom it out, no central database of 'this is how seriously we take GCSEs', and everyone has an anecdote. Among state-school kids, there is a widespread, possibly universal perception that private schools are gaming the system. This was laid bare during Covid, when analysis repeatedly showed private-school pupils enjoying what was euphemistically described as the 'largest boosts in their fortunes' from teacher-assessed grades. Even after that scandal, which you'd think would have shamed them a little, there remain some pretty rum coincidences: how is it that 42% of private-school pupils get extra time in exams compared with 26.5% of state-school students? Does being rich make you more likely to be dyslexic? Exam stress: how to help children cope with GCSEs and A-levels The upshot is that even though grades 7 to 9 all count as an A in old money, many perfectionist students think of 7s and 8s as a runners-up prize. The problem is, 9s are actually incredibly hard, so the amount of work you have to put in is insane. My niece did 700 hours of revision; my daughter has done more work this year than the rest of the family combined (and I have a job!); a friend's daughter drinks ginger shots because she doesn't have time to drink a whole glass of water. Phase Space is a VR startup that's developed a course for exam stress – there are five seven-minute modules built by medical students at St George's hospital trust. I managed to borrow one for all the kids to use (the older two are in year 12 and have mocks), but I'm the only person who's had time to try it (it's great – if you think I don't sound relaxed, you should have heard me before). I'm not taking exam leave, but I am, no question, always home unless the kids are with their dad; I hover, make unhelpful suggestions, offer unwelcome consolation and muffins. I can scrape together some opinions on Animal Farm and how to say 'since' in French, but beyond that I have no practical use except to dispense glucose tablets and hay fever medicine. Truthfully, I'd have it this way over the other way, where parents could glide past exam season, pausing only to notice that it was hot for the time of year. There's still a huge amount going on with teens that they won't tell you, so if the price for being let in is that I have to engage in conversations that make my brain hurt (about calculating the area of the wedge between two circles), then that makes it worth it. Nevertheless, roll on the long summer. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Emma Raducanu admits she was 'BURNED' by the fame after historic US Open run as Briton opens up on her 'smaller than ever' circle as she reveals plan to get back to her best
It sometimes feels as though ever since the 2021 US Open, Emma Raducanu has been trying to recapture the spirit of that schoolgirl who swept to the title. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that the 22-year-old version of that kid has a yearning to dust off her textbooks. 'I'm going to start studying more,' says Raducanu, in a joint interview with Mail Sport and the Guardian at the Italian Open. 'I think I need that. I've missed it for the last few years. I need something to stimulate and engage my brain so my entire life isn't just tennis.' Will this be formal study? 'I haven't decided yet. I think so. Whether I take my third A level, whether I go into a degree, I feel like I need some sort of pressure and adrenaline in that area of my life. 'Growing up, I always had tennis as an escape from studying and studying as an escape from tennis. So it wasn't just my entire life, my entire personality dependent on this one thing. 'I loved studying and I still do. I love those moments on my own, quiet reading in the library, figuring things out myself. 'In this life, where it's so busy and there's so many people around, as you see (she gestures around the buzzing terrace of the Foro Italico) it's nice to have that little retreat. 'Solving problems, getting a certain grade on an exam… your self esteem isn't just reliant on a win or a loss.' What would that third A Level be (to go with maths and economics)? Raducanu considers. 'English, politics or physics,' she says. The subject arose from a question about Carlos Alcaraz's new documentary. The Spaniard said his greatest fear is for tennis to become an obligation - has the sport ever felt like that for Raducanu since her title in New York? 'Yeah, I would say there have been times I felt that,' she says. 'The last few years of my career have been a big, big learning curve. 'I don't have all the answers now but I feel like I'm starting fresh. I want to do things in a different way. I'm working to see what I can do to bridge the gap between where I am now and the top of the game. 'I'm working on a few things, in my game and off the court, setting up my life in different ways.' It is no wonder Raducanu, a naturally curious and introspective soul, has been thinking things over recently. A lot has happened this year. A back spasm which ruined her pre-season. The departure of trusted coach Nick Cavaday for health reasons. The terror of being stalked across four countries. A coaching trial with Vlado Platenik which ended after just two weeks. The upshot of that abrupt parting from Platenik in Miami was an on-the-hoof partnership with Mark Petchey. What began as a stop-gap has become a more permanent, if informal, arrangement, and Raducanu talks for the first time about how that alliance came about. 'It happened completely by chance,' she says. 'It was almost fate. I was working with Vlado and I just knew it had to come to an end. Mark was already in Miami, commentating, and I bumped into him in one of the corridors. He's someone that I trust so we were just talking. It was a bit of both: it was me being scared to ask, can you help? And it was him not wanting to push himself.' Once again, Raducanu has reverted to someone who has known her before her Grand Slam triumph. Also in Rome is Jane O'Donoghue, her childhood coach turned financier. Raducanu reveals that O'Donoghue has taken a couple of months off her job in the city to be here for the clay court swing and into the grass. She has previously only done a week here and there. Raducanu knows her own mind and is fiercely loyal to those who knew her before fame and fortune. 'I am very independent and that definitely comes from my mum,' she says. 'She's the strongest person I know, has gone through so much in life and she's always taught me to rely on people as little as possible. 'But sometimes you do need to lean on people. I have become less afraid to do that. 'It takes a lot for me to open up. I haven't truly opened up to many people in my life. 'Once I let someone in, I let them in fully, and I care for them so much. I have been burned a few times, a few people who I've really trusted have surprised me. 'It's very difficult for me to trust new people. I find myself gravitating towards those people I've known before the US Open. My circle is smaller than ever. 'Up until I won the US Open, I was so sheltered. Up to 18, I was just with my parents. It was like nothing could touch me. And then all of a sudden everyone came and I got burned quite a lot of times, whether that's professionally or personally. Now I'm very Fort Knox with who I let in.' Raducanu's path of self discovery continues as she grows up under the beam of a most intent spotlight. She begins her Italian Open campaign on Wednesday against a qualifier.
