Lucy Carey, Stakeholder Relationships Manager

In September OCR published its report Striking the Balance. Since then we have met with stakeholders, teachers, students to discuss our findings and conclusions. In this blog, I will look at what the feedback has been on our report and what this could mean in terms of developing the curriculum and assessment for the future.

What is Striking the Balance?

We undertook a review to look at 11-16 education at the start of 2024, working with former Education Secretary Charles Clarke as the chair. We consulted with education experts, held round tables with teacher organisations, subject associations and education experts. In April 2024 we surveyed over 2000 teachers and students. 

The report warns that the current volume and intensity of exams at GCSE is too high, and an overloaded curriculum is narrowing students’ education. The report recommends rebalancing assessment away from a sole reliance on exams at 16 – urging a more holistic approach across education from 11 to 16. At the launch of the report Charles Clarke said: 

“Too many children are emerging at 16 without the basic skills they need to navigate a rapidly changing world. There is no ‘silver bullet’ to solve the challenges facing education, but there is an urgent need for reform.” 

The report’s recommendations include calls to: 

• Reduce the number of assessments used at GCSE, spread them out across the two years of key stage 4, and review the appropriate use of non-exam assessments (sometimes called coursework) 
• Reduce the content of the GCSE curriculum, allowing more time for the study of broader skills and competences 
• Introduce a benchmarking qualification, taken on screen, in maths and English to highlight gaps in students’ knowledge and provide structure to Key Stage 3 
• Redesign the English Language GCSE as a matter of urgency, and include a broader definition of English skills including media and spoken language.

Discussions with stakeholders

It has been a professional honour to have been part of the team who worked on putting together the report. I left my teaching role in 2017, but I still wanted to have an impact for young people and their education. Working on this report allowed us to really listen to a full range of people about what was not working in the current system and offer some ideas or a pathway as to how things could be improved. 

My team often meet with a full range of experts and education specialists online and in person at our forum events. Since the report was published, we have been discussing the findings and recommendations from Striking the Balance, and exploring what these findings might mean for developing new qualifications for the future or how we could update and refresh those we already support. 

We also run Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) advisory boards and Higher Education Forums. They represent the widest possible range of experts, including representatives from schools, colleges, professional associations, universities, employers and educational publishers, students, and teacher unions. Writing the report was just the first part of the conversation with education stakeholders about how we can improve the curriculum and assessment for young people. 

In September we collaborated with the Education Policy Institute (EPI) to run panel events at the Conservative and Labour Party conferences. Speakers at the events included Charles Clarke and OCR CEO Jill Duffy, as well as teachers and senior politicians. Delegates in the packed rooms asked the panel questions on topics including supporting SEND students in curriculum review, the role of religious studies in EBACC, and featuring more life skills such as the teaching of cooking and food awareness in the curriculum.

In all of these areas, both Jill Duffy and Charles Clarke were able to reference the research and the findings of the Striking the Balance report to support OCR’s position and the need for reform. It was great to see OCR sitting alongside government ministers and future members of the official opposition having discussions about the future of education and what is important for young people and teachers.

Listening to young peoples’ views

Young people form a significant stakeholder group for us at OCR. The curriculum is for them, and qualifications they gain are supposed to equip them with the skills and knowledge that they need for a future life and work. Part of our student charter was a commitment to listen and feed back to students what we have heard and what we are going to do. 

In a survey earlier this year 1,200 students across England told us that only assessing them in exams at the end of their courses was having an impact on their mental health: 

“For the amount of content between the different subjects, trying to maintain a social life and a job, I found myself getting burnt down which worsened my mental health a lot and made me struggle more to revise and do well in my exams”.

We are so keen to let students know what we have heard that we created a student summary of Striking the Balance. On our Instagram and TikTok pages we have interviews with student Yinka Aresa (chair of the OCR EDIB Advisory Board) talking about his response to the report.

Final thought

Striking the Balance sets out a way forward for curriculum and assessment reform for 11-16 education. But as our CEO Jill Duffy said:

“There are no easy answers in this report. But we set out a path that we believe can build on everything that is working well in English education. This is the right moment for change, and we must not miss this opportunity”.

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments on our report, so you are welcome to comment on this blog, or you can share your thoughts in this short survey (this closes on 6 December 2024). 

You can also read the full report.

Stay connected

You can keep up to date with all the latest policy developments on our policy website and @OCR_Policy on X (formerly Twitter). If you would like more news about education policy and the plans for education from the new government, you can sign up for policy updates.

About the author

Lucy joined OCR in September 2017 as the subject advisor for sociology and psychology. She later joined the Policy and Stakeholder Relations team in August 2022. Lucy leads on students’ voice, mental health and assessment and projects related to the Future of Assessment. Before joining OCR she had a 17 year teaching career at schools in Northamptonshire, Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire and Japan. In her spare time, she enjoys scuba diving and travel.

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