Why principals need to lead on GCSE English and maths resits

By Pauline Hagen OBE, FE adviser at the FE Commissioner’s Office, and former FE senior leader.

A few years after the introduction of the condition of funding (CoF), while waiting in a college reception in late August, I sat next to a member of staff from student services.

She had a laptop with a list of students and as they arrived, sometimes without looking up from her list, she directed them to a room for their diagnostic assessment.

This brief and functional interaction was the start of the students’ resit experience in college.

Fast forward to 2025, and I am in another college talking to resit students about their early experiences in college. These students had not been sent to a room for a test, and many of them described a very different experience in their early weeks in college.

“I remember the teacher talking to me about English at school and what I found hard and what my goals are and then asking me to write about what I had said just in a mini statement so she could use it to plan how she taught me.”

“We have maths and English in our faculty areas, so we are with our friends. We met all our teachers in engineering and English and maths on the first day and they are all based in the same offices.”

“We had a lesson in the first week where maths was built into a business lesson and we do something similar every few weeks.”

“The college principal came to talk to us about how he had to do English and how important it was in his career.” I heard many comments like this while working on the government’s recent Effective Practice Guide, published in February 2025.

Learners’ comments touched on recurring themes of belonging, contextualising, de-centralising, messaging, information-gathering, and caring. And in turn, of course, every one of these themes loops back to leadership, which sets vision and culture, allocates resources and implements models and systems. Whilst working on the guide, it was apparent that when this is done effectively, staff across the college understand and respond to the challenges of teaching and learning which is a compulsory element of the study programme.

Since 2014, college leaders have grappled with the challenges in mandated study of English and maths, seeing the effects particularly in attendance, where reluctant leaners “voted with their feet” and where even lining the route, prison-style from workshop to classroom and employing designated attendance officers had limited effect and possibly reinforced the sense of punishment and shame.

However, over the years, colleges have reviewed and refined approaches to English and maths, and working on the guide identified several where strategy has yielded results both in positive progress and achievement of grade 4. Leaders in these colleges shared some characteristics:

• they worked proactively, constantly learning from data and information
• they used evidence to change direction even if this presented difficulty
• these leaders had arrived at their current model and strategy through a process of learning, reflection and informed action
• they were still learning, listening, talking, asking difficult questions of themselves and others, and making decisions with one simple goal: to improve learner progress and achievement
• above all else, these leaders did not falter when asked about their strategy for English and maths. They all had one, and staff across the college readily articulated it. One principal commented that “the acid test of culture is when estates staff setting out exam desks are wishing resit students luck because they understand the importance of this exam”.

It was evident from these leaders that there is no rocket science in improving progress and achievement in English and maths. There are just four major forces: leadership, systems, engagement and teaching. And the greatest of these is leadership, without which the others will falter, and the best efforts of individuals will benefit some learners but not all.

The recurring theme of whole-college ownership of English and maths students and their outcomes came up repeatedly. It takes the heft of a whole college to bring about consistency of message and practice. But the job of communicating the vision and ambition and marshalling collective effort towards it again lies at the top of the pyramid and is drilled into systems, people, attitudes and behaviour.

This is why I think strategy formulation should be led from the top by the principal and that the starting point is knowing, recognising and embodying three things.

1. The individual, societal and economic good from improved outcomes English and maths.

2. Responsibility for outcomes lies squarely at the top of the college, which is where the buck stops. This might sound obvious, but the best leaders are confident in holding a mirror up to their own performance and that of their team and welcoming the learning that comes from it.

3. Acknowledgement that the resit cohort is unlike any other, and in so many ways. Here are just a few:

• their achievement and progress (marginal slow upward trend), the year-on-year increase in their number, their prior attainment and school experience, the high proportions of those with identified or unmet learning needs
• emotional factors, linked to negative prior experience, “failure” and a perceived lack of autonomy in college where they have an occupational identity, freely chosen and a resit identity, not freely chosen but mandated
• personal circumstances including disrupted education, experience of care, and economic disadvantage, which may create physical and psychological barriers to learning.

Leaders will recognise that Ofsted’s renewed inspection with its clear inclusion definitions explicitly references the barriers experienced by those without Level 2 English and maths. They will also understand the interplay between these characteristics, including the needs of young people without either English or maths and the link between these characteristics and NEET.

And there’s no better time than now to review and strengthen the English and maths strategy. In next week’s Think Further, I’ll set out the six steps I believe everyone should take in this process.