Written Evidence by The English Association (FES0020)

 

Education Committee

Further Education and Skills

 

  1. We write on behalf of the English Association, with our contribution to the investigation into how DfE could design a new way of doing FE that helps young people into the careers they desire, serves vital sectors that struggle to recruit, and catalyses growth across the country.
  2. The English Association (EA) is the national subject association for English literature, language, and creative writing across primary, secondary, further and higher education. Founded in 1906, we bring together individuals and organisations from all sectors and all areas of English studies. Through our publications, events, and networks, we initiate dialogue, distribute and enhance knowledge, and celebrate and strengthen the discipline. We have an engaged membership of over 2,000 education experts, ranging from primary and early years through secondary and further education to higher education; our publications reach tens of thousands of readers in schools, libraries, and universities all over the world. We are proud to work alongside other subject associations such as the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE), the UK Literacy Association (UKLA), and the Council for Language in Education.
  3. Significantly in this context, the EA is the only English subject association to work specifically on further education (sixth-form colleges and colleges of further education) alongside primary, secondary, and higher. 
  4. Our response to this call for evidence has been put together by a working group made up of experienced teachers and academics. Our response draws together our own knowledge, work, and research, and that of key organisations, specifically the Association of Colleges, the Association of School and College Leaders, and the Bell Foundation. We welcome this opportunity to share our expertise and knowledge

Executive summary

  1. English provision in Further Education, from Entry Level up to GCSE English, typically but not exclusively GCSE English Language, is currently not fit for purpose and in urgent need of reform. This is widely accepted across the subject, and within the sector, instantiated in a range of reports. 
  2. The re-sit course taken by students who do not achieve a Grade 4 in the English Language GCSE should properly reflect the motivations and requirements of more mature post-16 students. 
  3. Our research within the English teaching community has shown that the GCSE in English Language and the GCSE in English Literature are not fit for purpose. Both GCSEs must be overhauled in order to prepare young people for entry into further education, training, and employment. This is crucial from the FE perspective, because this would ensure that one-third of students are no longer locked in to re-sitting the GCSE English Language.
  4. Three whole-college issues must be tackled to properly serve our FE students: literacy, writing, and oracy. 
  5. SEND and ESOL students studying in FE must be enabled to access the content and assessment methods used, so that they can perform to the best of their ability.

GCSE curriculum and assessment 

  1. Please note that a detailed, evidenced commentary regarding recommended changes to the English curriculum and assessment across all sectors can be found in our submitted response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review call for evidence in October 2024 (https://englishassociation.ac.uk/ea-response-to-the-curriculum-and-assessment-review-call-for-evidence/).
  2. The changes we recommended in that document to the Curriculum and Assessment Review would benefit those currently ill-served by English post-16 provision. The rate of young people in FE continuing to study GCSE English Language remains high because of the need to gain recognised accredited status to access employment and /or higher education or training.

53% of all 16 to 18-year-olds in colleges (more than 280,000 students) continue to study English and or maths under the condition of funding (CoF) first introduced in 2014. This requirement is not without its challenges: 72% of those young people who need to work towards Level 2 in these subjects do not achieve that threshold… In summer 2024, just under 30% of 16-year-olds in England did not achieve GCSE English and or maths at grades 4 to 9… Enrolments in Level 2 and below English and maths account for 33% of 16 to 18 enrolments at general further education and land-based colleges(https://www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaigns-parliament/news-views/aoc-blogs/gcse-english-and-maths-reform-what-are-the-options).

That is: a third of students at FE are resitting English Language GCSE. (Specific data on the proportion of FE students resitting English GCSEs relative to the entire FE student population is not readily available, but this phenomenon is well-known in educational research circles as the Forgotten Third; we refer you to the Association of School and College Leaders’ work (https://www.ascl.org.uk/Our-view/Campaigns/The-Forgotten-Third).

GCSE resits

  1. We recommend that the Government redesigns pedagogical approaches to English, in the context of Apprenticeships and T-levels, with the learners’ needs in mind in terms of life skills and employability. The development of infrastructure and capacity within FE colleges to implement such changes, supported by a robust national strategy for vocational areas of study, is crucial to improve learner progression, employability, and skills shortages.
  2. Students in post-16 education have different motivations from students at Key Stage 5. Flexibility of choice in terms of the texts studied should be built into the re-sit curriculum to enable teachers to tailor the learning experience to the needs of their students. Such a curriculum has existed in previous years: the now-defunct Northern Examinations and Assessment Board specifications, which was welcomed by teachers and students in the FE sector. We recommend this as a potential future model.
  3. We recommend changing the pedagogical approach to re-sit GCSEs at the strategic level. The Open University presents a model of ‘blended learning’ which demonstrates the effectiveness of apprentices learning in a more  ’work-ready’ teaching and learning environment. This holistic pedagogical approach, that is flexible and vocationally linked, has proved a successful model worthy of further investigation for English provision in post -16 education and training (https://business.open.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/latest-news-trends/functional-skills-apprenticeships). We recommend this, too, as a potential future model.
  4. We propose a more holistic and cross-curricular provision to enable progress for young people who want to take up further education, employment, or vocational training and apprenticeships. We would support a portfolio model of curriculum and assessment as an accredited option in FE, where English and maths skills are embedded in meaningful assessments. The ASDAN Level 1 and/or Level 2 Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE) model provides a broader curriculum of study and a more varied assessment process to the benefit of students and we recommend it as a model (https://www.asdan.org.uk/media/mojatniu/cope-l2-specification-v6.pdf). 
  5. The portfolio model would involve students gathering a folder of work, using research, drafting, and editing skills, and including varieties of text-types and styles, to consolidate and build on their experience of the application of varieties of English. This model builds on reading, writing and oracy skills within a relevant framework that links to skills for life, work and further study.
  6. We also support the inclusion of GCSE English and Functional Skills as options from which young people can choose, following advice and guidance, as to which route makes the best sense in terms of their own progression.
  7. There is also a need for more varied assessments that are continuous rather than only linear. We urge consideration of an inclusive assessment approach. Given we want to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students, the assertion that ‘exams remain the best and fairest form of assessment’ is counter-intuitive and is not born out by the extensive scholarship that demonstrates how inclusive assessment (as opposed to a deficit model for e.g. SEND students) ensures all students are able to demonstrate their skills and knowledge through varied modes of assessment.
  8. We highlight the following recommendations from our previous submission that could be integrated into a post-16 GCSE curriculum to make it more relevant, meaningful and fit for purpose for young people beyond secondary school:
    1. offer a clearer idea of the purpose and integrated nature of the subject, and what they equip students to do in the world of work, and in their life as engaged citizens. English develops aptitudes in communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking that enrich all sectors of industry and social enterprise.
    2. include more media, non-fiction and multi-modal texts, including print journalism, Film, TV, drama, computer games and other digital texts. 
    3. include texts and approaches that support global environmental sustainability and greening the curriculum through climate education, and enhanced awareness of the representation of the natural environment.
    4. include, and consider more appropriate ways of assessing, creative writing, to reflect the ways in which texts are planned, drafted and written in the wider world.
    5. recognise the links to creative industries. While English develops aptitudes for all sectors of industry and social enterprise, there is a special link between English, a subject concerned with creativity, communication, language and narrative, and the flourishing creative industries in the UK, which both GCSEs could usefully recognise.
    6. A wider range of texts and discourses should be studied, including, for example, the rapid and continual evolution of social media discourses, video game discourses, and discourses encountered in museums, in sports commentary, in legal contexts, etc. The English Language GCSE should involve fewer questions on English Literature. 
    7. the relationship between GCSE English Language and future adult life and employment is made clearer.
    8. outside specific discussions to do with the history and evolution of language, English Language GCSE should be focused on modern and contemporary texts and period requirements for pre-20th century texts should be reserved for GCSE English Literature
    9. opportunities for discussion and critical analysis of spoken, digital and other media texts are offered.
    10. awarding bodies are encouraged to include more varied writing tasks, including creative writing, and creative rewriting so that there are opportunities to write in a variety of forms that reflect and are relevant to the 21st century and support them in life, learning and employment.
    11. speaking and listening and the study of spoken language should have a much bigger role in English Language GCSE

 

  1. A salutary indicator of our subject urgently requiring a change in curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in post-16 provision is clear in the following analysis: “In English, 148,569 students entered to resit the GCSE in post-16 education and the proportion that achieved a grade 4 pass was 20.9 per cent. This is 5 percentage points lower than 2023, and almost 10 percentage points down on 2019” (https://feweek.co.uk/gcse-resits-2024-maths-pass-rate-up-but-english-falls-again/). 

Whole college issues: reading/literacy, writing, and oracy

  1. There is a recognised crisis in reading among young people (see the work of Teresa Cremin (https://wels.open.ac.uk/research/lsj) and Professor Jessie Ricketts (https://lara.psychologyresearch.co.uk/projects/teenage-reading/). This crisis needs to be urgently addressed, and is an area neglected on a national strategic level in the FE sector.  Poor levels of reading act as a significant barrier to learning and progression, in training, apprenticeships, employment or further education. 
  2. Another additional consideration is the mental health of post-16 students: a large body of research shows reading capacity has a positive impact on the mental wellbeing of young people (https://www.bigissue.com/culture/books/frank-cottrell-boyce-interview-reading-rights-summit-children/). For students in post-16 education to access this support for mental wellbeing, colleges need to be supported to create holistic, college-wide infrastructure to create reading cultures (for example, college libraries need to be appropriately funded).
  3. We recommend: 
    1. funding teacher CPD and training to equip teachers to support students with low reading levels
    2. building thoughtfully on what teenagers are actually reading in order to introduce them to a wider range of texts.
    3. develop responsive strategies for reading, including building greater reading resilience and skill.
    4. develop strategies for helping students to respond to texts, developing probing of personal responses, infer meaning and make interpretations, through exploration, dialogue and debate
    5. other forms of reading are enabled, including audiobooks and digital forms.
    6. these strategies should complement the mandate to foster reading for pleasure.
  4. We refer you to the work of the Oracy Commission (https://oracyeducationcommission.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Future-of-Oracy-v23-web-13.pdf). Like literacy, oracy sits comfortably in both English Language, with its interest in language and communication, and English Literature, with its interest in communication, dialogic pedagogy, talk for learning, and literature’s role in developing student identity and fostering student voice. Our view is that speaking and listening and the study of spoken language should have a much bigger role in English Language GCSE, and potentially in new forms of assessment too.
  5. Writing is crucial for young people, to have these skills to equip them to progress in life, education, training, employment . 
  6. We recommend that the strategies for writing at GSCE:
    1. allow for more forms of writing to be both taught and assessed, including creative writing and building in talking and dialogue about texts.
    2. build in scope for the development of writing, including rewriting, editing, redrafting.

ESOL provision in post-16 education: driving better standards in the quality and consistency of provision and outcomes in English

  1. In recognition of the significant demand that the FE sector has to meet, a more coordinated response is needed to ensure demand is met to address ESOL learners requirements across regions and colleges. This need has been well documented in recent reports by the AOC and the Bell Foundation (https://d4hfzltwt4wv7.cloudfront.net/uploads/files/ESOL-Report-Final.pdf). 
  2. Breaking down the language barriers to progression in FE, for significant numbers of ESOL learners, is another necessary change in the move towards improving their outcomes in education and addressing employability and skills shortages.
  3. For many speakers of English as a second or additional language in the UK, effective language provision can be life-changing – the key to unlocking education, employment, and social opportunities. There are more than one million people in England and Wales who do not speak English ‘well’ or ‘at all’ – more than one-third of whom are UK citizens, with skills, knowledge, and experience that are going unrecognised and underutilised because of the language barriers they face (https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/app/uploads/2024/07/ESOL-Qualifications-and-Curriculum-Review-report_full-report_FV.pdf).

 

  1. We recommend a shift in pedagogical approach at the strategic level, integrating language learning into core curriculum and vocational studies. This would aid advancement in developing English Language skills as a whole college issue, further breaking down barriers to learning and enhancing social cohesion. At the same time, the provision of stepping stone qualifications should continue to be offered in Functional Skills programmes of study, from entry level to Level 2 accreditation.

SEND provision: Access to progression and disparity in attainment

  1. One of the most significant challenges that English teachers in particular face is supporting students whose reading age is far below their chronological age. This is too often the case in further education, a much-neglected area. Literacy difficulties sometimes arise as a result of dyslexia, but they are more often the indirect result of students with SEND or SEMH not having their needs met and therefore not engaging in lessons, or missing lessons for months or years. They then enrol onto courses in FE, where it is estimated that around 27% of 16-18 year olds declare a learning difficulty or disability; in 2023 only 23% of students with a disclosed SEND achieved grade 4s in both English and maths at the end of Year 11 (see https://www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaigns-parliament/news-views/aoc-blogs/gcse-english-and-maths-reform-what-are-the-options).
  2. Many of these students are very able, but their low literacy level means they cannot fully access the curriculum. Teachers often lack the time or specialised skills to help bridge this gap. Again, the capacity and infrastructure needs to be better funded to be able to deliver on improving the conditions of learning, opportunities and specialist support for these students.
  3. We also need to ensure that students outside of the secondary educational routes can easily access the programmes of study offered in FE. An accredited ‘bridging’ course could enable this opportunity in post-16. This could provide an English course tailored to those who have not followed ‘conventional’ routes and could offer units that cover academic and applied study to equip these groups with a solid foundation of understanding and experience of English for further study and/or vocational training using what they have usefully learned as they progress.

March 2025