#grade ten

This is the headline I read this morning, on the Telegraph (shocker), and I honestly can't believe that someone is even thinking about suggesting this.

The statement comes from Mr Barnaby Lenon, a 'former headmaster at the £41,775-a-year Harrow School'. 'He revealed that at some of the country’s top fee-paying institutions the “most common” mark this year was 9.' 'This year, almost a quarter (23.1 per cent) of private school GCSEs were awarded a grade 9.'

Basically, Mr Lenon is suggesting that GCSE's become increasingly more and more difficult, due to private school statistics. Private school. As in, paying £41,000 per annum to receive your education (in general, not including scholarships).

I have no problem with private schooling, nor the students who are privileged enough to receive such an education. But it is very ignorant to assume that just because private school students are receiving mostly grade 9s, that the bar should be raised even more.

When the grading system changed from letters to numbers, the curriculum as well increased difficulty. Memorising equations, quotes, closed book exams and less coursework than ever.

As someone who has just finished their secondary school education, and witnessed the breakdowns and pressure on a regular occurrence, I find it fucking stupid that anyone would suggest that a higher grade would need to be added. Speaking as someone who attended state school education, it was difficult enough for my friends to receive grade fours, and the pressure put upon the 'top sets' for grade eights and nines was horrific. Now imagine how crippled students would become if they found out that a grade ten was attainable.

You cannot generalise a percentage like private schooling, to the wider population. It is not fair on students. Even those in private schools, the pressure they would face to try and achieve faultless grades could have serious hindrances on their health.

And if they didn't receive a grade ten, how do you suppose they would react?

Or perhaps this is just a way to further widen the gap between private and state schools. That way, private school students would be able to maintain the top grades, whereas state school students would barely scrape by, and feel even worse due to the difference between a pass and the highest grade.

Luckily, a 'spokesperson from the exams regulator Ofqual said: "Our role is to secure that standards are maintained in GCSEs in England and we have no intention to introduce any additional grades above grade 9. "The 9 to 1 grading system has allowed better differentiation of the highest performing students than the A* to G grades it replaced. We believe everyone would now welcome a period of stability."'

You are damn well right that they would. But the fact that someone even considered making the GCSEs even harder, and more stressful, is sickening. What's wrong with more and more students achieving the top grades? Why must you constantly make them feel even worse, and push them to the brink of exhaustion and mental instability, just because you feel that they aren't being challenged enough?

She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror washing her make-up off; her dark hair clipped back, standing in a pair of underwear, wearing my old baggy gym shirt that fell past her waist. After she brushed her teeth she walked over to the foot of her bed, where I was sitting, and stood in front of me. As I placed my hands on her hips she removed the clip from her hair which allowed her long, loose curls to cascade past her shoulders. I then pulled her in for a kiss, but after a moment she leaned back and looked at me smiling then turned and walked to the side of her bed to lie down. All I was able to do was smile and let my head fall back. It drives me crazy when she does that because of the way she smiles as she walks away each time. I stood up and removed my shirt and climbed into bed next to her, only wearing my pajama shorts and sports bra.

For twenty minutes we laid there, the bedside lamp on, lost in conversation. I lied next to her, twirling the tips of her hair around my finger. I listened and stared into her chocolate brown eyes as she told me about her day. I love nothing more than hearing her talk about her day when we’re in bed, she always has a sleepy voice, and a soft smile, and tired eyes. By the time it was 9:30 she could no longer keep her eyes open; she did have a busy day afterall. She’s stubborn though, she tried to force herself to stay awake with me because I wasn’t very tired. I suggested she get rest and that I will eventually fall asleep. She smiled and said softly, “Fine,” then lifted her head off her pillow then turned and put her back against my chest. 

As I laid there holding her, listening to nothing but her breathe, I thought about how happy and how blessed I am to have this wonderful, kind-hearted, gentle, beautiful woman to be so interested and taken in by me. Out of all the people she’s met, she’s with me. I’m the one she falls asleep with and wakes up next to every day. To me, that’s something special and I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I thought about things, like, the kinds of gifts I would randomly bring home to surprise her with, and the kinds of trips we would go on together, and just showing her how much I’m going to love her and respect her and support her and help make her dreams come true. I imagined things, like, going grocery shopping together for our first home when we have one, and having little kids coming home from school having drawings for us to hang up on our fridge or to frame and put in our hallway, and I imaged us both being there for our kids when they deal with a broken heart or when they slip and scrape their knee or when our children accomplish things such as passing kindergarten or getting their drivers license. I imagined us leaving a restaurant angry at each other because of something that was said or because of something that happened, but once we got home there was only silence between us but not for long because one of us would apologize and try to make the other smile. I imagined many things and this is just a few.