Rishi Sunak's idea for a "British Baccalaureate"

The Welsh Baccalaureate has been running for a number of years, my son did it when he was in school.
www.gov.wales/welsh-baccalaureate

I think Sunak's British Bac idea is duplication. Why not adopt the International Bac? And is a change needed at all. Just add maths and English into the curriculum to 18. Too much micromanagement from the Tories.

Leave things as they are, I say. Our system works ok. And to change it would cost millions. We've enough troubles without making more. And school children have had their education messed around with enough.
I was (still am) terrible at maths. But after leaving school and working in an office I used to have to keep a large old fashioned ledger and soon learned to add up rows of figures, or subtract or multiply. So now, although I am bad at maths, I am good at 'sums'.

Another question, Mr Sunak- where are you planning to find all of these maths-teachers- in- waiting? I understand that maths and science teachers are in short supply at secondary school level.

Children do not need to study maths for 13 years in order to learn what they need to know for everyday life. They need to be taught a relevant curriculum. Those who need more maths for their career can specialise in the “sixth form”. How the PM thinks he is going to find any more time in an already crowded schedule for everyone to do maths is beyond me. And for some children it would be sheer cruelty to make them study maths for longer than they already do. It’s not the length of time spent on the subject that is important but the quality of the teaching and the relevance of what is taught.

Because he doesn't believe in devolution, Casdon!

Casdon

Does anybody know why he’s calling it a British Baccalaureate when it’s not, it’s England only because education is devolved to the national governments in the other countries?

He needs to go back to school and learn some history, geography and about political events over the last 30 or so years.

Perhaps include those in the English Baccalaureate too?

Does anybody know why he’s calling it a British Baccalaureate when it’s not, it’s England only because education is devolved to the national governments in the other countries?

We used to have more practical maths courses in secondary schools for 16yr olds who weren't up to more academic maths. But all that stopped in mid-80s with the introduction of GCSEs and National Curriculum (govt interfering with education). Subsequently they interfered with the different levels available with maths GCSE, and after that the content of maths GCSE (abstract algebra was added to the Foundation Level).

It's not a surprise that such behaviour means UK (England in particular) is ridiculously short of maths teachers. It's not unusual for secondary maths being taught by PE teachers, geographers or even science teachers (physics and chemistry staff also being in short supply). So why, having been told at the beginning of the year we don't have enough maths teachers, Sunak wants to increase the number of pupils doing maths, I've no idea.

Brilliant, Mollygo

Applied Mathematics for Todays' Teenagers.

Ps The cost of Vapes too 🤔

foxie48

Mollygo I love your idea, I wonder how many adults could do those sums!

I could, Miss . Which is my point, really, as I failed my O level. I can function perfectly well without it, and it hasn't held me back academically at all.

Mollygo I love your idea, I wonder how many adults could do those sums!

I did well with O level maths, but I was never interested in doing A level. I wish they’d do life maths. E.g.
If you smoke, the cost per year would be . . .

What effect would the addition of 10p per pack in tax every year have on the price of cigarettes over a ten year period. How much would you pay per year at the start of 11th year.

The school lost property box (attached image of contents) is always full of unnamed items, sweaters, odd shoes, branded rucksacks and sports gear.

Use the price list attached to price up each item in the image then calculate the total cost of replacement. Each single lost shoe must be counted twice as you can’t buy single replacements.

Extension task. All items in the box have gone up in price. Clothing by 15%, (17.5% for the H group) shoes by 20% and other miscellaneous items by 25%.
Calculate the total replacement cost of the items.
Your parents buy your X brand trainers and you “lose” them.
How much will it cost you to replace them using your £2 pw pocket money?

You’re fed up of the restrictions to your social life placed on you by your parents and want to move out.
Calculate the cost of
-fuel used for heating and lighting and powering devices (use 1 year’s bills divided by the number of people in the family.)

-Council tax (find out what that is if you don’t know) using the same calculation as for fuel.

- buying devices you use, that belong to your parents

- paying your own subscriptions, whether to things like Spotify or for your glasses or contact lenses.

-If your parents run a taxi service and/ or subsidise your travel costs, how much do they spend per week/month/year?

How much would you have to earn before you can think of paying to live somewhere else?

Maybe Rishi Sunak should be forced to study Textiles or something
Yes! 😁

Let's think of some appropriate subjects for him to test out for his Baccalaureate.

CDT aka Woodwork and Metalwork in the olden days
Agricultural Science
Welsh

Callistemon, you are funny

I had to go in a special class for Maths (got a B which was a miracle!) I would have hated to have been forced to do it until I was 18. Maybe Rishi Sunak should be forced to study Textiles or something

foxie48

Callistemon21

Chocolatelovinggran

Hmm foxie - wasn't it a minster a few years ago pushing Latin in schools as students studying Latin were less represented in the group of teenage pregnancies... no! honestly!

😃

I loved Latin - is that why I was an elderly primigravida?
I never connected it previously

I didn't love it, but I've never forgotten it as sitting chanting declensions etc is still imprinted in my brain. Not sure it kept me from getting pregnant, I think I was just lucky!

I never knew chanting amo amas amat was a contraceptive 😁

Callistemon21

Chocolatelovinggran

Hmm foxie - wasn't it a minster a few years ago pushing Latin in schools as students studying Latin were less represented in the group of teenage pregnancies... no! honestly!

😃

I loved Latin - is that why I was an elderly primigravida?
I never connected it previously

I didn't love it, but I've never forgotten it as sitting chanting declensions etc is still imprinted in my brain. Not sure it kept me from getting pregnant, I think I was just lucky!

Chocolatelovinggran

Hmm foxie - wasn't it a minster a few years ago pushing Latin in schools as students studying Latin were less represented in the group of teenage pregnancies... no! honestly!

😃

I loved Latin - is that why I was an elderly primigravida?
I never connected it previously

Until 16 yes, but not until 18.

Some pupil leave school at 16 to take up college courses, apprenticeships etc and will be taking Maths appropriate to their career choices, not necessarily the type which would be included in a Baccalaureate.
Practical Maths of the kind required for everyday life is a good idea but what is his plan?

Pupils in Wales can take a Welsh Baccalaureate alongside GCSEs; it is considered to be equivalent to one 'A' level but taken at 16.

I’m not sure about maths at Baccalaureate standard, but I do think some sort of ‘functional’ maths qualification, the basics needed for everyday life, is a good idea. But doesn’t such a thing already exist, apart from maths GCSE?

I agree that qualifications should exist, so that those who are good at the subjects can have that recognised; but I don't think that not having passed in one subject (whatever it is) should bar someone from studying a different one. It could equally be argued that History is an essential subject, as it teaches people to make parallels between the past, present and future, to produce reasons why things happened and to present them in a structured argument, but you never hear people say that you shouldn't be allowed to study Engineering unless you have studied History to A level. To me, saying you need Maths to be allowed to study History is exactly the same.

So that makes it ok? That's strange logic.

I don't see the problem. It has always been this way in European countries.

I don’t think RS is going to be PM going forward so his ideas seem pretty irrelevant.

I’m not sure about maths at Baccalaureate standard, but I do think some sort of ‘functional’ maths qualification, the basics needed for everyday life, is a good idea. But doesn’t such a thing already exist, apart from maths GCSE?

As for English, the general standard of SPAG is enough to make many of us despair. Why on earth is it so hard to teach children e.g. where to put an apostrophe? I had no trouble teaching such things to classes of mostly speakers of Arabic.

And I strongly disagree with anyone saying or thinking that nobody cares about such things any more. IMO it’s doing children and young people a great disservice to let them think any such thing. Just for a start, basic mistakes on a CV are all too likely to have them ending up in the bin - I know someone far younger than I am, who readily admits to this as an initial ‘weeding out’ of basically very similar CVs, and I wouldn’t mind betting that she’s far from alone.

Get the Education system, teachers pay and funding sorted for the current system we have before you make a ‘sound bite’ introducing something that will only work if the basics are sorted first.