“I was lucky enough to be fairly quick at understanding what was taught, but unlucky enough not to be really interested in it, so I always got my exams but never had the scholar’s love of learning for its own sake.” – Maeve Binchy

There is a long tradition, at least in the British system of education, of returning to school or university after a holiday to a series of exams. At Oxford University they are called Collections and serve to reinforce and to recap the work completed the term before. A case of testing not what was taught immediately before the test but examining what has been learned. Our Year 11 and Year 13 pupils returned to School to “mock” exams, a series of exams written for them that seek to emulate the GCSEs and A levels to be taken in the summer. Whilst not the warmest of back-to-school welcomes, mocks serve a variety of purposes. They stimulate revision, can be used to identify areas of strength and weakness and simply allow students to begin to develop strategies and approaches to deal with nerves and anxiety before they sit public exams in the summer. It is also worth pointing out that these exams are only a means of gauging progress, they are not a fully accurate judgement on ability or skill. As such, mocks should be viewed as the most important exams and the most difficult exams that are taken during the course of study. Prior to the final there remains time to mature academically, opportunity for the consolidation of skills and the plugging of knowledge aps. Above all, mocks can give confidence in knowing what is to come.

All that said, I probably value the process and results of mocks more than those heavily reported final exam results. As a teacher, I can learn more about a pupil from the mock than the ultimate result. Top performers in mocks tend to be the students who have worked consistently. They are likely to have understood the subject, reflected upon it and will have shown a certain degree of dedication in resisting the temptations of the holidays to ensure that work has been done. Final exams are preceded by revision sessions, lots of practice and can (at least to some extent) be crammed for. The coming six months still allows for those who are more last minute than steady workers to catch up. Exams are a blunt instrument of assessment. Having the opportunity to witness steady academic growth, collaborative learning, the ability to read deeply and widely and to make the most of what is known are generally associated with those who do well in mocks. Those who score well in mocks are usually those who would be recognised with good effort grades. Effort may be a clumsy term, but it is a useful idea. It’s important that we recognise those who engage with their learning most effectively and demonstrate scholarship. Academic endeavour cannot be measured like athletic activity, we don’t have a heartbeat monitor of thought, but we can draw conclusions from the way that our young people approach their studies. This may not be recognised in the final exam, but it is perhaps right that we recognise the efforts of all those who have achieved well in these recent exams, not only in terms of their academic achievement but more their effort.

Nicholas Hammond

Headmaster