{"id":2938,"date":"2014-03-07T16:41:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T16:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=2938"},"modified":"2014-03-07T16:41:51","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T16:41:51","slug":"welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh Government sticking to new GCSEs despite poor results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/CathaysHighSchool2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2941\" alt=\"CathaysHighSchool2\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/CathaysHighSchool2-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2941\" alt=\"CathaysHighSchool2\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/CathaysHighSchool2-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><br \/>\nThe Welsh Government is sticking to its plans to make GCSE exams more challenging, despite uproar this week at the poor performance of secondary school pupils in Cardiff.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n\u201cWe have established an extensive reform programme to transform qualifications in Wales to improve rigour and raise standards,\u201d said a spokesman. \u201cWe remain on track to deliver our reforms.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Government will be meeting with schools and the Welsh Joint Education Board, who set the papers, in the coming weeks but the spokesperson said they remain firm in keeping on track to improve standards.<br \/>\nChanges in the way the English papers are marked are being blamed for poor results in January exams delivered yesterday.<br \/>\nIn the English exam, accuracy is the main focus under the new system.\u00a0 A huge 50 per cent is now given for spelling, punctuation and grammar in the writing paper and this is a big change.<br \/>\nThe other big change is papers are now marked by external examiners instead of internally by teachers.<br \/>\nUnder the old system, teachers could award just 30 per cent for accuracy, spelling and grammar in the English Language writing paper.<br \/>\nFollowing pressure from the Welsh government, the specification has changed and now technical accuracy is 50 per cent of the paper.<br \/>\n\u201cThe main difference between the old GCSEs and new GCSEs is greater focus on technical written accuracy,\u201d according to information on the WJEC.<br \/>\n\u201c50 per cent of marks for writing tasks are now awarded for how well sentences are structured and the use of correct spelling and punctuation,\u201d it says.<br \/>\nThe Welsh Government spokesperson said: \u201cWe will be working with the WJEC and schools over the next few weeks to establish the issues that may have affected the results achieved by students in the units sat this January.\u201d<br \/>\nThe new GCSE has been taught in schools in Cardiff since September 2012, and the first exam under the new system was in January.\u00a0 Results delivered yesterday caused a furore among teachers, parents and unions.<br \/>\nThe results were devastating for some parents, pupils and teachers but the Welsh Government is determined to continue with reforms to improve educational standards, despite the poor performance.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Welsh Government is sticking to its plans to make GCSE exams more challenging, despite uproar this week at the poor performance of secondary school pupils in Cardiff. &nbsp; \u201cWe have established an extensive reform programme to transform qualifications in Wales to improve rigour and raise standards,\u201d said a spokesman. \u201cWe remain on track to deliver our reforms.\u201d The Government will be meeting with schools and the Welsh Joint Education Board, who set the papers, in the coming weeks but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":2941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[224,2064,126,2065],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-education","tag-gcse-results","tag-welsh-government","tag-wjec"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Welsh Government sticking to new GCSEs despite poor results - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welsh Government sticking to new GCSEs despite poor results - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Welsh Government is sticking to its plans to make GCSE exams more challenging, despite uproar this week at the poor performance of secondary school pupils in Cardiff. &nbsp; \u201cWe have established an extensive reform programme to transform qualifications in Wales to improve rigour and raise standards,\u201d said a spokesman. \u201cWe remain on track to deliver our reforms.\u201d The Government will be meeting with schools and the Welsh Joint Education Board, who set the papers, in the coming weeks but [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-07T16:41:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/\",\"name\":\"Welsh Government sticking to new GCSEs despite poor results - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-07T16:41:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/03\/07\/welsh-government-sticking-to-new-gcses-despite-poor-results\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Welsh Government sticking to new GCSEs despite poor results\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\",\"name\":\"cathyduncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/d4d0895f6e1f7ccb86d04236a870a18b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cathyduncan\"},\"description\":\"Lecturer, Cardiff University News Journalism MA. 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