It’s safe to say the last year has been tumultuous at best and education of all levels has been greatly affected. With the disaster of this year’s exam results it's no surprise that both teachers and students are sceptical of the government's recent decision for GCSE and A level exams to still go ahead in the summer term. Given the amount of schooling students have lost and the disruption to their learning, many teachers, students and parents believe that exams should be scrapped altogether with some arguing that teacher assessed grades would be a more fair way of grading students. 

 

As it stands today schools and colleges will remain open during the current second national 4-week lockdown period and most likely afterwards too, even if the tight restrictions continue, and the government have stated that GCSE and a-level exams will go ahead in the summer term. However the Department of Education confirmed at the beginning of October that most GCSE and A-level exams will take place three weeks later than usual in 2021 in an attempt to give students more time to prepare. 

 

However, what this does mean is that one English and one maths GCSE exam will still take place before the May half term in order to “help manage disruption”. All other exams will be sat after June 7 and will continue until July 2. The government has also planned to engage with schools to address further potential disruptions and provide solutions to these. But again this will leave schools waiting more than 6 weeks to hear the ministers’ “Plan B”. 

 

Here at Marvellous Minds, we will continue as planned to get our students ready for their exams, regardless of when they take place, but these are uncertain times and we would love to hear what your opinions on the governments actions are and whether you think exams should still go ahead? 

 

Charlie is adding a new room to his chocolate factory and you have the golden ticket to see this new and exciting room! 

 

Describe the weird and wonderful inventions you can find in this room. Remember to think about the five senses. What can you see, smell, hear, taste and touch? 

 

We would like to see you use some lovely adjectives and descriptive writing. Please also use some literary devices such as similes. * 

 

*This exercise can be adjusted depending on a student's age group and level. It can also be linked to relevant learning objective such as use of grammar like verb, adverb, conjunctions, punctuation or watever else you would like your studens to develop and use.