Entry Level Certificate our most recent arrival!
Marilyn is the principal examiner for Entry Level English at WJEC Eduqas. Here she writes about how we have updated the qualification so that it focusses on the reading and writing skills required at KS3 and KS4, whilst also continuing to provide the valued alternative route that has benefited many thousands of students over the years.
I have worked for Entry Level for about 25 years and I have been Principal Examiner/Moderator for about 15, so I feel qualified to give you a brief potted history of the old lady.
She started off in the early eighties as the Certificate of Education, which then morphed into the Certificate of Educational Achievement; then, at the turn of the century, someone had the idea of Entry Level – doing away with the awards of Pass/Merit/Distinction and putting Entry Level1/2/3 in their place. The new lady was welcomed by thousands of young teenagers who struggled with literacy more than their peers did. Centres as far away as the Cayman Islands invited her into their schools. Everyone was happy with her and she was happy to stay as she was – why change something that works?
Then they took away her performance points in schools and radically changed GCSE. Her old friends stayed loyal but she did look tired. No one was happier than she was when she decided to retire and make way for her new offspring.
The new baby looked closely to her GCSE cousins in England and Wales – she wanted to be like them. They were doing ‘new stuff’ and she wanted to do it too – only at her level. So, with a close eye on her cousins, she introduced herself to the world last Summer and found that she had thousands of new friends in England and Wales: whole Year 9 cohorts who wanted to experience an external qualification for the first time, whole Year 10 cohorts who wanted an introduction to her big cousins, as well as her old friends who would struggle to gain any external qualification when they left school unless she helped them.
As I helped bring this new baby into the world, I am incredibly proud of her. She was welcomed with open arms by many new centres, improving the chances of succeeding in English of so many students. I was always proud of her mother too but it wasn’t a time just for a new look: it had to be a complete change in line with the new GCSEs and the demands of present day. So please, take a look at our new baby and you’ll see how wonderful she really is!
If you want to find out more about how our Entry Level English qualification can help your students, please visit our website or contact the subject officer, Guy Melhuish.
