Teenagers in England will today learn what topics they will be tested on in this summer’s GCSE and A-Level exams.
This summer, for the first time since 2019, GCSE and A-Level exams will be sat after they were cancelled for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it’s been announced that pupils will today receive advance information on the topics that will appear on the exams to help them prepare for and focus on their revision.
But what exactly does this mean?
Well, for some text-based subjects, such as English Language, the advanced information may include the genre or period that unseen texts used during exams will be drawn from, and then for subjects such as Maths, Combined Science, and Physics, equation sheets will be provided to reduce the number of formulas students need to memorise.
Subjects such as Art and Design – which are only assessed through coursework – will not feature any advanced information, however, and then in humanities subjects such as English Literature, History, Ancient History, and Geography, advanced information will not be released, but students will instead students will be assessed on fewer topics.
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The information covers about 300 specifications across GCSE, AS and A-Levels, and will appear on different exam board websites from this morning.
The Department for Education (DfE) said the change – which was announced last year – is not intended to reduce the range of content pupils need to be taught, however, and exam boards also decided they would release information in February rather than earlier in the academic year, as headteachers had called for, so that pupils would continue to learn the entire curriculum.
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The measure is said to be more focused on helping build students’ confidence.
Teenagers in England will today learn what topics they will be tested on in this summer’s GCSE and A-Level exams / Credit: gov.uk
Speaking ahead of the topics being released in advance today, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “Exams are the best and fairest form of assessment, and we firmly intend for them to take place this summer, giving students a fair chance to show what they know.
“We know students have faced challenges during the pandemic, which is why we’ve put fairness for them at the forefront of our plans.
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“The information to help with their revision published today, as well as the range of other adaptations, will make sure they can do themselves justice in their exams this summer.”
In addition to the advance publishing of topics, exam papers will also be graded more generously this summer than in a normal exam year, although they will not with the assessment watchdog Ofqual setting grade boundaries at a “midway point” between 2021 and when exams were last sat in 2019.
Also speaking ahead of the announcements this morning, Geoff Barton – the General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders – said: “We look forward to seeing the information being published to help students focus their revision for this summer’s exams [and] it is extremely important that this really does help to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on learning.”
“We will be studying it in detail to ensure that it provides fairness to students of all ability levels,” he added.
Featured Image – Unsplash (MChe Lee)
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Mancunian has been named one of the ‘most attractive’ accents in the UK
Emily Sergeant
Manchester is, once again, celebrating what we already know – our accent is one of the “most attractive” in the UK.
In case you missed it, earlier this year, Manchester welcomed in 2023 with the news that our city’s accent had been named the “sexiest” the country has to offer – with a survey of 2,500 people by casino comparison site Best Casinos discovering that over half of respondents ranked it the most pleasing regional accent to the ear.
And now it turns out that that survey wasn’t a fluke, because a new study has called the Manchester accent one of the “most attractive” in the UK.
On a top 10 list compiled from the findings of a new survey of 2,000 people aged 18 to 55+ by online language tutoring service Preply, the Mancunian accent has claimed a pretty respectable fifth place.
But while there’s no doubt we can hold our heads high and be proud of claiming a spot in the top 10, this title does become a bit less impressive when you realise which other regional varieties have placed higher than us.
Mancunian has been named one of the ‘most attractive’ accents in the UK / Credit: Preply | Pexels
Fellow Northern accents Scouse and Geordie have taken second and third place on the list respectably, and the Welsh capital’s Cardiff accent rounding out the top five.
For us northerners, the grim reading continues when you learn that the London accent has clinched the top spot.
The Most Attractive Accents in the UK
London
Liverpool
Newcastle
Cardiff
Manchester
Glasgow
Birmingham
Bristol
Leeds
According to Preply, 21% of women survey respondents voted for the London accent as the most attractive in the UK, compared with just 15% of men, while 10.4% of the population picked the unique sound of the Liverpool accent as second best.
Only 8.7% of survey respondents considered the Mancunian accent to be the most attractive.
The results from this survey do, at least, go some way to shattering the findings from two surveys published last year that found the Manchester accent is considered to be one of the ‘least respected’ nationwide, especially in the corporate world of work, and that Northerners with strong accents are considered ‘less intelligent’.
Featured Image – Unknown
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The first bright yellow Bee Network bus has hit the streets of Greater Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester residents will soon start to see bright yellow double decker buses travelling the region’s streets in the coming weeks.
With exactly six months to go before Greater Manchester “brings buses back under local control”, Mayor Andy Burnham has joined a number of other local leaders in unveiling the brand-new ‘Bee Network’ co-branded buses.
In what marks the biggest change to transport in Greater Manchester for almost 40 years, according to Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), bus operator Diamond – which currently runs services in Bolton – has teamed up with Go North West to run the first franchised services in Wigan, Bolton, and parts of Salford and Bury from September this year.
Diamond has agreed to start transforming their buses into Bee Network ones from this week, with more set to appear on the roads every month.
The first bright yellow double decker bus has now hit the streets of Bolton, and is serving the number 8 route – which connects Bolton and Manchester city centre via Farnworth and Salford.
The Bee Network is coming in September.
But from April you might see some yellow buses out and about. 🚌
If one of your buses is now yellow, please contact your bus operator in the usual way if you need them. 👍 #GetOnBoard for more info 👇
— Transport for Greater Manchester 🚲🚶🏾♀️ (@OfficialTfGM) March 24, 2023
As already announced by TfGM and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), when franchising is officially introduced on 24 September 2023, 50 brand-new electric Bee Network buses will hit the streets on day one, alongside new ‘Euro VI’ vehicles, and dozens more co-branded buses from the existing fleet.
A further 50 electric buses will then be introduced onto the network in March 2024, which is when the second part of franchising starts.
All of the 270 new electric Bee Network buses will be fully accessible, with wheelchair bays, hearing induction loops, audio and visual announcement systems, and anti-slip flooring.
Mayor Andy Burnham said the first Bee Network bus entering service is “very much the start of our journey”, and added that the scheme will “ultimately deliver a greener, integrated and more inclusive transport system that will transform how people travel around our city-region.”
The first bright yellow Bee Network bus has hit the streets of Greater Manchester / Credit: TfGM
Transport Commissioner Vernon Everitt also called the first bus’s introduction onto the streets as “a further significant step” towards the integration of the Bee Network and the “transformation” of public transport and active travel in the region.
He continued: “From September we’ll also have dozens of new state-of-the-art buses serving passengers in Wigan, Bolton, and parts of Salford and Bury.
“These will be the first of many across Greater Manchester that will, alongside the new lower fares – which are already increasing ridership – and improvements to travel information, improve bus travel for everyone who lives and works here.”
Emily Sergeant -
7th February 2022 
