#341: Podcast with Mary Colwell - June 2024

GCSE Podcast with Mary Colwell.

From the transcript

A subject criteria panel were established. Now this is a panel that decide the overarching content of the GCSE. It's not the detail that's set by the different exam boards, but it's the principles which the exam boards have to adhere to. So the criteria panel was set up and although I couldn't be on it, I wasn't allowed on it and it's secretive, I did manage to influence two things. One, I managed to get them to concentrate on making habitats, the centre of how it would be organised, so that habitats around the country would be understood in terms of the species that live in there. So you'd go anywhere and be able to say, oh, this must be a wetland or this must be an ancient woodland or this must be a disturbed urban area or whatever it is. And these key indicator species of different habitats would form the sort of core of the GCSE. And I also to persuade them to send the content out to a range of really good field naturalists before it went public. So that panel was set up and that all happened. And the next thing that has to happen is that it goes to public consultation. All new GCSEs have to go to public consultation, which means you, me and everybody can comment on the content. Normally, and there haven't been very many GCSEs recently, so it's not something that's been tested much. In fact, the only one recently has been the sign language, British sign language, which probably doesn't need much consultation because that's a very defined and understood thing. But natural history, you know, garners a lot of interest. And so to get ready for the public consultation, they sent it round to naturalists and got it ready. But for some reason, just before the consultation was due to be announced, it was stuck. it got stuck in a process whereby all ministers have to sign off new legislation, new input. And for some reason there was some disagreement amongst ministers, so although the Department for Education had agreed it, somewhere somebody or a collection of people didn't agree to it, and there was no furtherment of that before the next, this recent general election was called. So it didn't get to public consultation. And now we have a general election. It looks likely we'll have a change of government. And I have literally no idea how the new incoming Labour government, which we're all assuming, is going to feel about a GCSE in natural history. If they don't like it, it might be dead in the water.

And some interesting thoughts on the teaching of the GCSE and the support that people will need...

There's also though, a lot of concern that we lack the expertise and knowledge to teach it. Because there was this everybody could say, oh, it's fine, it's fine, we'll get the GCSE and natural history and geography and biology teachers will do it. Well, not necessarily, because it's not always biology and geography teachers that are naturalists. And in fact, I would say that we're really missing naturalists everywhere. You know, you can be a biologist and not a naturalist, definitely. And the same is true for geography. So we need a whole level of support. for teachers and for schools to take this. We need to give them the confidence that there is the expertise out there, that the support out there whenever they need it. In terms of online resources, courses, teacher training, money for equipment or even to go on trips if that's what's needed. You know, we need to know, schools need to know they're supported and I then think it will absolutely take off. So there's a huge amount of enthusiasm, but there's also concern that we're not getting the support in place that's needed to make it really fly.