The English Baccalaureate or "The IGCSEs You Should Consider Taking"

There has been much debate recently as to which GCSE/IGCSE options are "best" and which "less good" as a preparation for higher education or a career.  Driven by league tables, there has been a trend among a number of schools to enter students for so called "soft options", of which Media Studies is cited frequently as an example.  These schools have thereby hoped to improve their place in the league tables, and be perceived as academically higher achieving. 

Recently the Secretary of State for Education, concerned by the declining number of students with good GCSE passes in what have traditionally been seen as "core subjects", introduced the English Baccalaureate.  (Baccalaureate means a qualification intended to fit the recipient for higher education.)  And schools will now be judged by the government, in part at least, on the the success of their students in gaining this.

To achieve the English Baccalaureate, students must gain passes at grades A*-C in the six following GCSE/IGCSE subjects: 

• English Language 
• Maths 
• Two Sciences i.e. two of Biology, Chemistry, Physics OR Co-ordinated Sciences (a double subject award) 
• A Modern Foreign Language, such as French or German
• A Humanity, such as History or Geography 

Wolsey Hall offers all the above subjects and would recommend that you consider the English Baccalaureate for your child, as a minimum qualification. It will be of benefit in their route both to higher education and career. Children of average ability normally take 8 - 10 IGCSE subjects, including the English Baccalaureate subjects detailed above.

We offer a fee concession of 15% for homeschoolers taking the 6 subjects of the English Baccalaureate.