Is the London Marathon A Good Metaphor for GCSEs?

In between my other jobs this weekend, I have been considering how to use the London marathon as a stimulus for a PSHE lesson - how to draw positive messages from it.

This year, over 250,000 people entered the ballot to run the London marathon. Approximately 50,000 were selected and of those around 40,000 made it to the start line. It is run by elite athletes, keen amateurs and costumed warriors with a cause to champion. It is run by the able-bodied, those with sensory impairments, all genders, people living with mental health issues and people with all manner and degrees of physical challenge. 

I love that all run the same race - there is no "easy" marathon, nobody gets a go on a segway half way round, and nobody gets someone else to come and do a bit of the run for them. It's very fair. Fairness seems very important to me - in sport, in education and in life - as does equality of opportunity.

It's also very humane event. Every year we see heartwarming pictures of people being helped by fellow runners to cross the finish line. Crowds assemble to cheer the runners on and volunteers hand out bottles of water and then help to clear up afterwards. We sponsor friends, relatives and colleagues taking part. Again, this seems very important and is something I emphasise in my classroom - the collegiate effort and social responsibility. 

But in searching for positive messages to draw on in my lesson, I could not help making a few less happy comparisons  - mainly with our exam system.

Marathon runners are physically and mentally prepared for the challenge they face when they hit the start line. There is no sense of "this is your year and it's now or never". There's no "better run it soon or the race will change beyond all recognition". We put all our youngsters through GCSEs regardless of their readiness. I accept that there are good reasons for having a fixed finish line, and for having an exam system that compares the cohort and ranks them so that they can move on to an appropriate next steps.  For the vast majority of kids that's fine, but for some it is disasterous. What if you have just been bereaved, or are recovering from cancer, or you have missed great chunks of the course because of ill health? How fair is that? I just wish that there were a bit more flexibility for some students. 

Everybody who takes part in the London marathon gets a medal because the process of getting there is valued - the fund raising, the training, the preparation. It doesn't matter whether you are a tortoise or a hare - you are a marathon runner. With GCSEs it is very definitely not like that. Get one mark below the arbitrary "pass mark" and you are a failure. You may as well not have bothered. Just as there are runners who will finish in under 3 hours, there are those who will take 6, 7 or 8 hours. They have still achieved. GCSE students who get a D or - in new money a 3 - have shown evidence of significant skills, but they are branded failures. For some students, that 3 represents a great deal of effort both on the part of the student and the teacher - it just seems a crying shame not to recognise that. 

Of all the comparisons I have made between the two, it is the attitude of the media that irritates me the most. Every year, without fail, there is discourse which emerges about the decline in standards of GCSEs - how they are too easy, and the marking can't be trusted. Compare that to the positive language used about the marathon. Runners are encouraged, lauded and held up as fine examples of humanity. The slowest runners are feted as much as the fastest - often more. This year we have the lovely addition of a narrative about how "nobody understands the new grades". I am actually quite grateful for Brexit in one regard only - it has taken the heat off the GCSEs for the time being at least. 

I don't think that we need to completely change the way we assess young people. I have no problem with GCSEs per se - they are a rite of passage and they are probably about as good as we are going to get them for the moment. 

I do think that a slightly more flexible approach to entry, a recognition of attainment at all levels and a more positive message to our youngsters who are working their socks off is definitely called for.