Sarah Waite

Crucially, it’s not an alternative to GCSE - it’s about giving students with grade 2 or below the time and teaching to build core skills and re-attempt the GCSE successfully.

This keeps ambition high and focused on the ultimate goal: more young people achieving a standard pass by 19, opening doors.

For 7 years, @getfurther.bsky.social has been focused on improving GCSE resit pass rates. We turned that learning into policy ideas, rooted in a deep understanding of the students & belief in their potential.

Delighted the Gov’t is progressing our proposal for a new L1 English &maths stepping-stone

Imagine if Top of the Pops still existed

Maybe the answer to political apathy, trust, and populism is for everyone to be a local councillor for a few weeks.

Incredibly moving piece.

I have long believed that further education is where the next big transformation in the education system needs to happen. This transformation must include young people from all backgrounds. We’re ready to play our part to make sure it does.

#furthereducation #loveourcolleges #labourconference

At @getfurther.bsky.social, we’re ready to support as many disadvantaged young people as possible to gain these essential qualifications – so they can unlock their aspirations, whether that’s university or an apprenticeship.

Gateway qualifications in English & maths are critical to making this a reality. 9 in 10 university applicants have passed GCSE English & maths – and apprenticeships are no different. 3/4s of advanced apprenticeship adverts ask for these quals. For degree apprenticeships the bar is even higher.

🙌 It’s exciting to hear the Prime Minister commit to ending further education’s ‘Cinderella’ status, with higher standards in colleges – and to set the ambition that two-thirds of young people will go on to university or a gold-standard apprenticeship.

Are 14-16 EHE programmes governed by their own separate funding rules, or 16-19 funding rules (or school age funding rules?)

There’s definitely dodgy ethics in the concept that colleges would turn children away because of a requirement to teach them more hours (we’re talking max 4 hours a week for English, 3 in maths).

They did give additional funding - £150m a year I think. I would argue it’s not enough though (as it coincided with the removal of the £100m 16-19 tuition fund).

Could you dig out some of these and send them my way? Keen to have a read of the international ones in particular.

Curriculum and Assessment Review Interim Report - Our reponse - Get Further Get Further’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review Interim Report, published 18th March 2025. — Today, we welcome the findings and recommendations put forward in the Curriculum and Assessm...

getfurther.org.uk/curriculum-a...

This is the policy proposal @getfurther.bsky.social developed, which we hope would improve things without detracting from the ultimate ambition of supporting as many young people as possible to progress.

See below for one example of how GCSE resit results could be improved - by stamping out this sort of thing and actually teaching young people!

That is terrible. I think many in the wider education / policy world don’t realise things like this are happening and are partly why results are so low.

I’m pretty sure it’s because of the whopping increase in student numbers overall. It’s driving an increase in NEETs because funding/places isn’t keeping up.

Just sharing an anecdote I saw on LinkedIn:
“whether you're pro or anti-resit policy, it's impossible to deny the incredible impact it can have in FE. Case in point: resits have allowed two of my EHCP learners the time to build confidence, develop autonomy and ultimately achieve their grade 4s.“

Isn’t this because of the demographic boom at 16-19? Colleges are becoming more selective because more young people and not enough places available

I think the reasons are tbh… the policy came about because of research into outcomes for those missing these qualifications at 16.

Nearly every other OECD country has English and maths to 18 for all students, regardless of their level at 16. Why is the idea of studying these subjects alongside a main course such a big deal here?

I don’t think I agree with this, sorry! There’s a study from over a decade ago showing that missing out on GCSE grade C in English by just one mark increased a young person’s chances of being NEET by a third. Pretty much purely because of the signalling power of the qualification.

There’s an argument for that but the point of my post is there is no rule in place for GCSE entry requirements to A levels, T levels, Uni and many jobs - and yet education settings and employers still set passes in GCSE English & maths as entry criteria. No one is forcing them to. But they do.

What I mean is that e.g., sixth forms, colleges, employers could already enrol/hire young people / adults without these quals, but many don’t.

The only rule in place is for 16-19 apprentices - they need to have a level 2 English/maths qualification (e.g., could be functional skills, doesn’t have to be a GCSE) by the end of the course. There’s no other official rules. Employers & education providers put their own entry requirements in place

For a positive perspective, check out BBC Midlands coverage of Get Further’s fantastic partnership with South & City College Birmingham, funded by The Rigby Foundation.

Together, we’re helping more students succeed in their resits and tackling entrenched regional inequality head-on.

#GCSEresits

The real issue isn’t whether young people retake GCSEs, but what happens if they don’t.

And no, a new “alternative” Level 2 qualification won’t solve it. As long as GCSEs exist, they will remain the benchmark for employers and education providers alike.

* Smarter timing of resits (no more entering year 12s with the lowest prior attainment in November), and a greater focus on building foundational knowledge and skills in literacy and numeracy.

With the right reforms, we can push these figures over 90%. That means:

* Proper funding for FE, long neglected as the Cinderella sector.

* Tackling the shortage of qualified English and maths teachers in FE - the sector that is hardest hit by the recruitment crisis.