Scottish school experts reveal longer Highers and exams plan to boost pupil attendance and behaviour

Alarming levels of pupil absenteeism and misbehaviour would fall in Scottish schools if Higher courses were longer and National 5s were shorter, according to a group of education experts.

A new report by the Commission on School Reform outlined a proposal that would lead to S4 pupils sitting National 5 exams prior to the Easter holidays, and then immediately starting their Highers when they returned.

The group said this would effectively provide an extra term for Higher and cut the “seemingly endless weeks of study leave” in which “very little actual study takes place” at S4.

The exam timetable could be condensed and all marking completed more quickly, as the S4 marking would be earlier.

For pupils, the commission said such a change would avoid the current “loss of momentum” they experience on the return to school in June, when attendance drops, partly because it is so close to the summer holidays.

Students sitting an exam. Image: John Devlin | NW

The idea comes amid renewed concern over stubbornly high absence rates since the disruption to education during the Covid-19 pandemic, with close to a third of pupils in Scotland being missing for at least 10 per cent of the last school year

The report’s main author was Carole Ford, a former head teacher of Kilmarnock Academy and former president of School Leaders Scotland.

She said: “How and when pupils are assessed has a significant impact on how they behave, on how they learn and how well they will cope with future learning.

“I am certain that the unsatisfactory nature of the current examination arrangements is a driver of the high pupil absence rate, rising before Covid but now at an alarmingly high level, and the behavioural problems in many classrooms, too often culminating in actual violence.

“Many of the problems associated with the assessment system occur at S4. The shortage of time for Higher courses rests largely on the loss of teaching time during the lengthy examination period in S4, and parents will be well aware of the seemingly endless weeks of study leave.”

She added: “More fundamental change is probably required, but in the very short term we could make a difference to behaviour, absence and outcomes if we held all Nat5 assessments before Easter, and commenced Higher immediately thereafter, for the full final term of S4.”

In September, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth rejected a recommendation to scrap exams for National 5 courses.

However, she said “internal and continuous assessment will contribute to a greater percentage of a final grade”, adding that in some courses an exam might not be needed in future.

The report by the Commission on School Reform, which was established by the Reform Scotland think-tank, highlighted “negative impacts” for the lack of exams for National 3 and National 4 courses.

It said: “Teachers frequently report that behaviour and motivation in classes at Nat 4 level are significantly worse than at Nat 5. Pupils are demotivated by their perception that they are not worth an examination. There is a stigma attached to the non-examined courses.”

The commission said reintroducing examinations to all levels in S4 should be “seriously considered”.

The report also calls for changes to exams themselves, moving away from the “needlessly formulaic and predictable” type that “lend themselves to the seemingly endless practice of pre-prepared answers”.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government accepts the balance of assessment methods in the senior phase of school should change and this process is now being taken forward.

“But the Education Secretary has been clear that any change needs to be focused and deliverable given the resources available to national and local government and to schools themselves.

“We are working with Education Scotland and the Interim Chief Inspector to improve attendance and reduce absence, with individual local authorities also carrying out their own work to address this. The most recent figures published last week showed an improvement in attendance and persistent absence.”