{"id":7864,"date":"2021-02-16T17:21:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T17:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7864"},"modified":"2021-02-20T11:52:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T11:52:33","slug":"dfe-approval-and-the-natural-history-gcse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2021\/02\/16\/dfe-approval-and-the-natural-history-gcse\/","title":{"rendered":"DfE and the Natural History GCSE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Imagine a conversation in a sanctuary just north of the Thames ...<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The next item on the agenda, Secretary of State, is what to do about the OCR proposal for a natural history GCSE.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Golly! \u00a0Already? \u00a0Do we have to?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>I\u2019m rather afraid so, Secretary of State; we have rather been neglecting this; it's months overdue.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Oh dear, I suppose we\u2019ll have to then; at least that will stop people writing to me about it. \u00a0Do you know how many letters and emails I\u2019ve had? \u00a0Absolutely bucket loads. \u00a0And phone calls too; someone even rang me at home last\u00a0week; no idea how she managed that; are there are no state secrets left?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>It\u2019s certainly a popular issue.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Minister of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Yes,\u00a0<\/span>and most correspondents want it to be approved, even though they come from across the political spectrum. \u00a0It seems the leftists see it as a means of subverting capitalism and the patriarchy, and the more conservative voices see it as a means of standing up for traditional values, and for England as it used to be. \u00a0Quite fascinating.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>But is it any good?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Minister of State\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>\u2013 Well, most respondents think so, and it does look more interesting than some of the terrible stuff we make children learn these days. \u00a0At least it will get them outside so we can tick all those obesity and mental health boxes.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Right then, what shall we do?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Minister of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>We\u00a0could just say\u00a0\u2018yes\u2019 to taking the proposal forward. \u00a0It would be the most popular decision we\u2019ve made for years. \u00a0In fact I can\u2019t remember when we last made a popular decision.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Indeed. \u00a0Does no one oppose it?<\/span><\/div>\n
Minister of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>A few teacher\u00a0trainers, bloggers and professors\u00a0of education, but no one listens to them anyway.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>What do they say?<\/span><\/div>\n
Minister of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Well, they\u2019d prefer us to change the national curriculum so that every student would get the benefit of what the programme covers rather than just a few.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Crickey! \u00a0We can\u2019t do that. \u00a0Can we?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Minister of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Certainly not, Secretary of State, especially after we\u2019ve just seen off all those awful students with their demands\u00a0about climate change.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>So, are we agreed,\u00a0<\/span>then?<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>I suppose so. \u00a0It\u2019s only a GCSE after all.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Minister of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Yes; hardly anyone will take it, but a lot of people who think their opinion matters will be happy with us.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Spiffing!<\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine a conversation in a sanctuary just north of the Thames ... Permanent Secretary \u2013\u00a0The next item on the agenda, Secretary of State, is what to do about the OCR proposal for a natural history GCSE. Secretary of State \u2013\u00a0Golly!...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}