Call To Action

Posted by scratch's blog on Mon, 14 Sep 2015

This is from the AQA (formerly known as the Assesments and Qualifications Aliance) website:

The Department for Education announced on 10 September 2015 that AS and A-level Creative Writing cannot be redeveloped under government changes to A-levels.

That basically means that AS and A levels in creatve writing are to be discontinued.  For those interested the full directive is available to read here:

Read the announcement

If you aren't already registered with change.org I'd like to encourage you to do so and sign the following petition:

4253108

I appreciate that there are lots of online petitions for a variety of causes but this one will be close to many of us at ABCtales.

Peter.

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

I must admit my ignorance. I didn't know there was a creative writing A-grade. I signed the petition. Creative writing is one of the best ways to learn English, how it works and...well, I'll not ramble on.  

 

Submitted by scratch on

Thanks, celt.

 

Submitted by london_calling79 on

Playing devil's advocate here a bit - I've taught the A-Level in creative writing and it's not a good course. It's a bit of a halfway house to be honest and a lot of Unis don't rate it. It's not like me to defend the ridiculous changes made under Gove's regime but some of the A-Levels and GCSEs that got by previously were ridiculous - you could get a GCSE, or in some cases more than one GCSE, by copying from a textbook. Unfortunately, the Creative Writing A-Level is a little guilty of this. Some of the portfolios I've seen are atrocious but still deemed passable. It gives a false impression of writing, although it can be a decent introduction/taster in the right hands.

The creative writing element is alive and well in the beefed up English Language A-Level and in the Lit A-Level AQA spec where you are encouraged to create an extra chapter or scene in the style of an author you have been studying. The Language A-Level focuses on planning, drafting and the use of style models to write your own non-fiction and then analyse it in 500 words - a difficult and worthwhile writing exercise.

In my experience, the creative writing element is best left to the Universities to deal with, although of course this is not the case for everyone.

 

Submitted by scratch on

Just seems that the errosion of opportunity for writing and that endeavour itself being rubbished and not even worth recognising is regretable to say the least.

 

Submitted by london_calling79 on

This is true and also true for other subjects deemed 'less academic'. I can see the reason in the case if creative writing however mucky it makes me feel!

 

Submitted by scratch on

Stop being so bloody reasonable.

 

Submitted by london_calling79 on

Well I see your point there and I can fully understand it but I have to respectfully disagree and resort to insults you big poo head. :)