To better understand the pressures that they place on themselves, a teaching assistant sat alongside his students for a GCSE.
Rob Howell is a teacher at Oswestry School in Shropshire. He says that students have asked him how he can know what they experience during exam season.
He explained, “I realized at that moment that it was all I knew.”
If he passes chemistry Mr Howell has promised his pupils that he will sit another GCSE next school year.
He said, “Now I understand what stress young people experience as they prepare for exams.”
“The trepidation and expectation, the pressure they place on themselves.”
When discussing revision and the importance of GCSEs with students, he said that the idea for sitting a GCSE was born to him. One commenter commented, “It’s all fine sir, but you don’t know what it feels like.”
The assistant explained that she realized that it was not clear what to do.
He decided to study chemistry with the support of the science department. Although he only attended one lesson per week because of work, Mr Howell was able to study at home using textbooks and past papers.
He said that when the students realized he was serious, “they were really supportive” and they began to learn together.
He took three papers in May, and will receive his result in August.
He stated that if I am successful, I already told the fourth-form I will do GCSE physics next year – I must have been a glutton to punish.
Peter Middleton, Headteacher, praised his staff member by saying “I take my hat off Rob and it’s really courageous to do.”
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