GCSE Natural History - an update from Mary Colwell

I've been adding posts to a blog about the GCSE Natural History since the specification was first given the go ahead back in 2023. It's had about 40 000 page views which is not too bad, given that the specification isn't yet approved.

There's also a Facebook page with over 800 members - the interest in the potential new specification is there.

I've just posted the 450th post, which is cross-posted below.

This is a visual representation of a thread that Mary Colwell recently posted on X (which I try to avoid linking to). She has started to realise what those of us involved in previous curriculum innovation know tends to happen when they come across the desks of those who shape it so that it will fulfil OFQUAL's thinking about what makes them examinable on a large scale. 

The OCR Pilot GCSE Geography was the most innovative examination I ever came across, and had the chance to change things in the longer term. The people developing it were able to keep a great deal of the original conception of the course, but it was cancelled after the original pilot period came to an end. I'm glad I had the chance to teach it at the end of the first half of my teaching career and that my students had the chance to experience it.

When the first thoughts on the new specification and the results of the consultation came out there was a lot of excitement about the potential of the new GCSE Natural History specification: focus on fieldwork, creative aspects including art, photography and literature and training in field practice, as well as a multi-disciplinary approach to wildlife and landscape. 

During the time since it was first announced (see the early posts on the blog for more on this period) the exciting elements have undoubtedly been diluted by the various stages such things go through.

This is what Mary had to say earlier today, providing a few insights into what is emerging from the various stages of development so far which she has perhaps been made aware of - and a long way from the wide-ranging content on the 450 posts on this blog so far, which cover all aspects of natural history.

I haven't seen the original piece, but you can see the first page here.

Two days fieldwork is no more than you get from GCSE Geography - this could easily be more but that is what is examinable. There's no problem (as such) with schools offering more, but if it's not examined or really embedded in the specification's structure it will not happen.

Noticing is really important.

The statement above is a key aspect of the development of the new specification.

Fingers crossed that the next time I go to a GCSE Natural History Forum meeting, we are shown something a little more developed, rigorous and ambitious.