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Exam Nation: Why Our Obsession with Grades Fails Everyone – and a Better Way to Think About School
Exams, grades, league tables, Ofsted reports. All of them miss the point of school and together they are undermining our whole approach to education.
What is school for? In theory, it equips young people to become independent and productive, to get jobs and forge lives, perhaps to be 'good citizens'. In reality, it means one exams.
By focussing on the grades pupils get in neatly siloed, academic subjects, we end up ranking them and our schools into winners and losers. Some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face. Meanwhile, the 'good' schools become middle-class enclaves and the most disadvantaged lose out.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher, hundreds of interviews and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright shows that schools are - and should be - so much more than this. Filled with funny, tender encounters and an unflinching focus on the profound challenges of daily life for both teachers and pupils, his book argues that we need urgently to think of school as something more like a home than a factory, a community hub rather than a boot-camp or testing ground. Exams and grades are necessary, but they are not what equip children for adulthood, and at the moment they are having the very opposite effect.
Written with a novelist's flair, a polemicist's urgency and ending with a series of practical recommendations for change, this entertaining and hugely important state-of-the-nation book interrogates one of our most beloved and misunderstood institutions and shows us a better way.
What is school for? In theory, it equips young people to become independent and productive, to get jobs and forge lives, perhaps to be 'good citizens'. In reality, it means one exams.
By focussing on the grades pupils get in neatly siloed, academic subjects, we end up ranking them and our schools into winners and losers. Some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face. Meanwhile, the 'good' schools become middle-class enclaves and the most disadvantaged lose out.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher, hundreds of interviews and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright shows that schools are - and should be - so much more than this. Filled with funny, tender encounters and an unflinching focus on the profound challenges of daily life for both teachers and pupils, his book argues that we need urgently to think of school as something more like a home than a factory, a community hub rather than a boot-camp or testing ground. Exams and grades are necessary, but they are not what equip children for adulthood, and at the moment they are having the very opposite effect.
Written with a novelist's flair, a polemicist's urgency and ending with a series of practical recommendations for change, this entertaining and hugely important state-of-the-nation book interrogates one of our most beloved and misunderstood institutions and shows us a better way.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 15, 2024
38 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 2, 2024
where to begin? it's bizzare reading a book about schools, written by your teacher, just after your little brother got his alevel results and you got your qts, first of all. second of all, its fascinating to read this in the limbo i'm in currently where i somehow both identify with "student" and "teacher" identities. if i'd read this two years ago, i'd have disagreed on one major point: that we shouldn't abolish exams. exams were awful for me, and continued to be until i summoned a plague to avoid sitting my alevels- sorry guys! however, coming at it now, i see the value in them. i agree with everything put forth here, in particular the abolishment of KS2 SATs. having seen the impact it had on an otherwise joy-filled, enthusiastic group of year six. i cannot see how the exams are in any way beneficial for either students or teachers, or even schools. the concept of cross-curricular studies in secondary is incredible, as this is so integral to primary school teaching i almost forgot that it doesn't happen in secondary. for me, as a (not so recent, much as i like to pretend) secondary school attendee, and a (much more recent) QTS-haver being able to look at schooling from a secondary perspective was intriguing. it's true that primary school teachers DO look on at secondary and wonder what the hell happens in there, but combining a short visit to a secondary and the contents of this book, it's clear to me at least that it's simply impossibly to contain the joy and intrigue so easily found in primary schools when you reach secondary. the encroachment of subject leadership and secondary content on primary schools is tragic and takes so much away from what should be a place to explore what you like to learn and how you like to learn it. on this, we fundamentally agree- school should both give you an opportunity to go on in life to do whatever it is you fancy, but it should also be a place where you are free to explore what you enjoy, and what you want to do, which is where i think the passport qualification absolutely soars. having your life opportunities and career decided by decisions you made (or didn't really make- looking at you EBacc) when you're 13 is an insane concept that i hadn't thought about in depth until this book. overall, i'm exceptionally glad i leapt out my mums car on alevel results day to catch up with my teacher- as it led me to this wonderful thinkpiece that i will go on to suggest to all of my teacher peers and non-teacher peers.
August 27, 2024
This book really hits the nail on the head about the state of our education system. Maybe I was so impressed with it because he has expressed more eloquently than I could many conclusions that I have reached over my 30 years teaching. I love the nuance of his analysis (he doesn't just say "get rid of exams") and its breadth (he looks at many aspects of school and wider society). As an English lit teacher, he provides more qualitative research than stats, and the final conclusion rests on the idea that the narratives we tell ourselves end up shaping our reality. In the current zeitgeist of EEF, John Hattie and general attempts to quantify all human experience, this is very welcome.
His proposed solutions are both radical and practical, but I feel he needed to stress that his "passport" would have to be criterion referenced rather than norm referenced like current GCSEs, and should be taken whenever students are ready. This seems to sit better with the arguments he made earlier in the book. At one point he also falls into the cliché that "the best teaching gives the best grades anyway". He doesn't prove this, and moreover he states elsewhere that our current assessment isn't designed to ensure the best teaching. So what if the best teaching, in the wider sense of the word "best" that he outlines in the book, doesn't produce such strong results in these faulty current assessments? What needs to change?
But overall, this should be read by all teachers and discussed in staff rooms all over the country.
His proposed solutions are both radical and practical, but I feel he needed to stress that his "passport" would have to be criterion referenced rather than norm referenced like current GCSEs, and should be taken whenever students are ready. This seems to sit better with the arguments he made earlier in the book. At one point he also falls into the cliché that "the best teaching gives the best grades anyway". He doesn't prove this, and moreover he states elsewhere that our current assessment isn't designed to ensure the best teaching. So what if the best teaching, in the wider sense of the word "best" that he outlines in the book, doesn't produce such strong results in these faulty current assessments? What needs to change?
But overall, this should be read by all teachers and discussed in staff rooms all over the country.
August 25, 2024
I listened to this on BBC Sounds. The timing of Sammy Wright’s book couldn’t be better (with recent GCSE and A Level results). He draws on his experience as a Head Teacher of more than 20 years and he tells the story about Britain's national exam obsession - and the harm it does. I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it very thought provoking.
September 10, 2024
What is a school for? That is broadly the question that this book tries to answer, by looking at policy structures, individual schools as well as the author's own experiences and approaches.
The author is a teacher and a school leader and sits within the more progressive side of the mainstream, which makes this book rather pragmatically idealistic. He has the usual stances on issues that most progressive people would be supporting - very critical of Michael Gove's reforms, market aspects of the academy model and of course the absurd algorithm for assigning GCSE grades in 2020 that was originally attributing grades to individual students based on the previous year’s achievement in the same school.
Early chapters look at historical developments of the education sector in the UK, showing that for instance various types of schools were created to serve different purposes (like grammar schools educating sons of urban merchants, public schools educating nobility and students from poor backgrounds, etc), yet they all exist alongside each other at the moment. Also useful are analyses of policy developments in the past 30 years, that show the introduction of Academies during the New Labour years and later Free schools under Gove. Interesting is also the discussion of the limits of the freedoms that these schools actually have, because despite not having to follow the National Curriculum, academies are still assessed on measures aligned with it by Ofsted (which is of course critiqued as well).
The core argument of the book is that the education sector in the United Kingdom is based on replicating middle-class understanding of education priorities, general life values and to some extent a way of life. This is visible in both languages, but also in the way that the primary focus of education is on developing skills leading towards A-levels and attending universities. UK exams could be said to test how much of a middle class is a student able to perform on a single day.
Later parts of the book look at aspects of the realities of schools, which are important for success (the debate of which is also interesting). The author stresses the importance of the sense of security (physical, but also emotional) in classrooms as the precondition for any learning. A lot of space is spent on the nature of the curriculum, where the author goes beyond the traditional knowledge-skills dichotomy in what the curriculum should emphasise. The author does not discount the importance of general knowledge, yet stands critically against useless, status-defining knowledge like learning Latin. He spends a lot of time discussing the theories of E.D. Hirsch and especially the notion of domain specificity - that knowledge and skills from one area are to a large extent quite useless in others.
Judging from the title, one would imagine that the book would be a rant against exams, yet it is rather a thoughtful look at the way in which exams are seen as the end result and not a useful byproduct of UK education. The author concedes that with the exception of KST2 SATs (which should be cancelled), exams are not perfect, yet at the moment, they cannot be fully replaced by anything. But to make schools really good, a sense of community, emphasis on behavioural development, building of confidence and socialisation are more important than just performance on a narrow range of tests.
Generally a very interesting look at the UK education sector, but also an analysis of what schools could be.
The author is a teacher and a school leader and sits within the more progressive side of the mainstream, which makes this book rather pragmatically idealistic. He has the usual stances on issues that most progressive people would be supporting - very critical of Michael Gove's reforms, market aspects of the academy model and of course the absurd algorithm for assigning GCSE grades in 2020 that was originally attributing grades to individual students based on the previous year’s achievement in the same school.
Early chapters look at historical developments of the education sector in the UK, showing that for instance various types of schools were created to serve different purposes (like grammar schools educating sons of urban merchants, public schools educating nobility and students from poor backgrounds, etc), yet they all exist alongside each other at the moment. Also useful are analyses of policy developments in the past 30 years, that show the introduction of Academies during the New Labour years and later Free schools under Gove. Interesting is also the discussion of the limits of the freedoms that these schools actually have, because despite not having to follow the National Curriculum, academies are still assessed on measures aligned with it by Ofsted (which is of course critiqued as well).
The core argument of the book is that the education sector in the United Kingdom is based on replicating middle-class understanding of education priorities, general life values and to some extent a way of life. This is visible in both languages, but also in the way that the primary focus of education is on developing skills leading towards A-levels and attending universities. UK exams could be said to test how much of a middle class is a student able to perform on a single day.
Later parts of the book look at aspects of the realities of schools, which are important for success (the debate of which is also interesting). The author stresses the importance of the sense of security (physical, but also emotional) in classrooms as the precondition for any learning. A lot of space is spent on the nature of the curriculum, where the author goes beyond the traditional knowledge-skills dichotomy in what the curriculum should emphasise. The author does not discount the importance of general knowledge, yet stands critically against useless, status-defining knowledge like learning Latin. He spends a lot of time discussing the theories of E.D. Hirsch and especially the notion of domain specificity - that knowledge and skills from one area are to a large extent quite useless in others.
Judging from the title, one would imagine that the book would be a rant against exams, yet it is rather a thoughtful look at the way in which exams are seen as the end result and not a useful byproduct of UK education. The author concedes that with the exception of KST2 SATs (which should be cancelled), exams are not perfect, yet at the moment, they cannot be fully replaced by anything. But to make schools really good, a sense of community, emphasis on behavioural development, building of confidence and socialisation are more important than just performance on a narrow range of tests.
Generally a very interesting look at the UK education sector, but also an analysis of what schools could be.
December 28, 2024
Just finished reading (well listening on Spotify) https://lnkd.in/ezGPDMHF by Sammy Wright, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. This is a book that every parent, teacher, policymaker, and member of our communities should read.
Why?
Our education system desperately needs radical change and this book provides a great review of the current structure and a vision of where we need to go.
Sammy Wright’s insights are balanced, thoughtful, and personal. He examines how our education system has evolved into its current state, often leaving too many children behind, and frames a compelling argument for why schools must serve as the heart of their communities. The five narratives he outlines at the conclusion of the book are a high level framework for change:
1. Education is not a marketplace:
The market-driven education model creates winners and losers. Outstanding schools should not be accessible only to those in affluent, middle-class areas.We must break the link between wealth and educational opportunity to build a system where every child can thrive, regardless of their postcode.
2. Schools need to be at the heart of communities:
Schools should be hubs of engagement, integration, and collaboration. By connecting with wider services such as healthcare, social work, and family support, schools can truly meet the needs of their communities and ensure no child is left behind.
3. Knowledge is for everyone:
There is a core body of knowledge that all students should have access to, but education must also allow space for individuals to delve deeper into areas that inspire and empower them. This balance is critical to ensuring both equity and excellence.
4. School is for everyone:
Not every child can integrate into mainstream education, and that’s fine. We need robust and meaningful alternative education pathways to ensure that all young people can access learning environments where they can succeed and feel valued.
5. Measurement is about improvement, not ranking:
The obsession with league tables and rankings does more harm than good. Schools should be evaluated on their ability to safeguard children and provide nuanced, contextualised support for students. Success isn’t about outpacing others—it’s about ongoing improvement.
This book is a must-read because it doesn’t just diagnose the problems; it provides a way forward. Wright’s vision calls for a joined-up approach that brings together policymakers, educators, and communities to create an education system fit for the future. It’s bold, but it’s necessary.
If you’re looking for a book that will challenge your assumptions about school and inspire action, read Exam Nation.
Why?
Our education system desperately needs radical change and this book provides a great review of the current structure and a vision of where we need to go.
Sammy Wright’s insights are balanced, thoughtful, and personal. He examines how our education system has evolved into its current state, often leaving too many children behind, and frames a compelling argument for why schools must serve as the heart of their communities. The five narratives he outlines at the conclusion of the book are a high level framework for change:
1. Education is not a marketplace:
The market-driven education model creates winners and losers. Outstanding schools should not be accessible only to those in affluent, middle-class areas.We must break the link between wealth and educational opportunity to build a system where every child can thrive, regardless of their postcode.
2. Schools need to be at the heart of communities:
Schools should be hubs of engagement, integration, and collaboration. By connecting with wider services such as healthcare, social work, and family support, schools can truly meet the needs of their communities and ensure no child is left behind.
3. Knowledge is for everyone:
There is a core body of knowledge that all students should have access to, but education must also allow space for individuals to delve deeper into areas that inspire and empower them. This balance is critical to ensuring both equity and excellence.
4. School is for everyone:
Not every child can integrate into mainstream education, and that’s fine. We need robust and meaningful alternative education pathways to ensure that all young people can access learning environments where they can succeed and feel valued.
5. Measurement is about improvement, not ranking:
The obsession with league tables and rankings does more harm than good. Schools should be evaluated on their ability to safeguard children and provide nuanced, contextualised support for students. Success isn’t about outpacing others—it’s about ongoing improvement.
This book is a must-read because it doesn’t just diagnose the problems; it provides a way forward. Wright’s vision calls for a joined-up approach that brings together policymakers, educators, and communities to create an education system fit for the future. It’s bold, but it’s necessary.
If you’re looking for a book that will challenge your assumptions about school and inspire action, read Exam Nation.
February 28, 2025
Gosh I really like this book.
The way the author sets out his desired outcomes, information, conclusions and most especially the solutions is fantastic. I mean he IS an english teacher! So this should be expected but it doesn't mean its any less valuable to the reader or even to a society.
His style is engaging and not preachy or patronising, you can tell he cares about kids on a human level and that he's speaking from a breadth of experience that non teachers just don't have (except for maybe social workers, youth workers etc) As a parent you know your kids and a bit about their immediate peers, as well as blighted memories of when you were a child yourself and your friends at the time and depending on those experiences you will have a small cone of vision/experience about the state of education then and now.
He really gives both a more panoramic and a personal view from all kinds of perspectives that not everyone has access to. I really enjoyed hearing from the kids and the heads from settings that I had no experience of. I was glad that situations similar to mine were covered. I really feel like he did a good job of looking at it from all angles.
When it comes to his conclusions and possible changes to the current system I was in awe of them. The journey he leads you on before you get to them mean that you can see the potential benefits as he explains. he doesn't shy away from admitting that they would not be easy and they would take a long time to get right and they would require a level of co-operation and agreement within politics that has rarely been seen before.
But, he also says that there is such value in this kind of blue sky thinking. To really set out almost unimaginable lofty goals to reach towards bravely. To give society something to aspire to. To shake up what we grudgingly accept now. To really rethink what we want and need from our education system, to reset and clarify the outcomes so we can properly design ways for EVERYONE to have a fair chance of getting there.
I really loved it. it's a fantastic blueprint for what a book like this (on any subject) should do.
Top Marks. A+. Gold Star. Choose a sticker for your wall chart.
The way the author sets out his desired outcomes, information, conclusions and most especially the solutions is fantastic. I mean he IS an english teacher! So this should be expected but it doesn't mean its any less valuable to the reader or even to a society.
His style is engaging and not preachy or patronising, you can tell he cares about kids on a human level and that he's speaking from a breadth of experience that non teachers just don't have (except for maybe social workers, youth workers etc) As a parent you know your kids and a bit about their immediate peers, as well as blighted memories of when you were a child yourself and your friends at the time and depending on those experiences you will have a small cone of vision/experience about the state of education then and now.
He really gives both a more panoramic and a personal view from all kinds of perspectives that not everyone has access to. I really enjoyed hearing from the kids and the heads from settings that I had no experience of. I was glad that situations similar to mine were covered. I really feel like he did a good job of looking at it from all angles.
When it comes to his conclusions and possible changes to the current system I was in awe of them. The journey he leads you on before you get to them mean that you can see the potential benefits as he explains. he doesn't shy away from admitting that they would not be easy and they would take a long time to get right and they would require a level of co-operation and agreement within politics that has rarely been seen before.
But, he also says that there is such value in this kind of blue sky thinking. To really set out almost unimaginable lofty goals to reach towards bravely. To give society something to aspire to. To shake up what we grudgingly accept now. To really rethink what we want and need from our education system, to reset and clarify the outcomes so we can properly design ways for EVERYONE to have a fair chance of getting there.
I really loved it. it's a fantastic blueprint for what a book like this (on any subject) should do.
Top Marks. A+. Gold Star. Choose a sticker for your wall chart.
July 23, 2025
This was an extremely thought-provoking book, and inspired many topics that I am keen to discuss with the other youth members in the Fair Education Alliance. I especially liked how he discussed that, ironically, the exam grades are what becomes the thing that is useful, rather than the actual knowledge that they represent. Another point that resonated highly with me was that while exams are vital, in order to achieve the idea of 'fairness' in education, we must look beyond academic success and by valuing a whole other array of non-academic qualities, this is how we can help make school function for everyone. He also ended the book with several suggestions as to how we can approach education in Britain more effectively, which were very niche but useful. It is frustrating, however, that I can't implement these suggestions as they are indeed very structural changes and therefore only possible from above. I do highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in both the benefits and drawbacks of our current education system and how we can do better!
November 1, 2025
I have been looking forward to reading this book since its publication in 2024. I have been a teacher for only ten years, switching from another career, and since I got over the shock of being in the toughest job I have ever had, I have had a slowly growing concern that much is not right with education, leading me to conclude that it simply is not fit for purpose. I have ideas on what to change, but many of my colleagues are too deep into the system that they have resigned themselves and accepted, implicitly, to be a cork floating on the sea of education. Sammy Wright has not.
The two best things about this book were a) that he put texture to what's actually going on in the school that it has struggled to articulate b) he proposes a small number of practical ideas that over the long run will demonstrably change education to be better for society.
My overriding emotion reading this is relief. Relief that a few, a happy few, are calling out what many think cannot be changed; It's just the way school is, right?
Thank you, Sammy, for waving a flag I can stand alongside
The two best things about this book were a) that he put texture to what's actually going on in the school that it has struggled to articulate b) he proposes a small number of practical ideas that over the long run will demonstrably change education to be better for society.
My overriding emotion reading this is relief. Relief that a few, a happy few, are calling out what many think cannot be changed; It's just the way school is, right?
Thank you, Sammy, for waving a flag I can stand alongside
February 7, 2025
I am not a teacher and I live in NZ, which has a slightly different education to the UK, and one that has been less decimated by its government. That being said, this was an insightful (and one would have thought blindingly obvious) look at how exams and academia are a long way from suiting every child.
What I took from this book, was that schools should be as much places of community and socialisation as learning. That subjects should 'bleed' into each other more (eg. the unfamiliar text in English could be about a period of history the children have been studying). That the transition from junior to high school (in UK year 7) be softened (something that kin of works with NZ's "intermediate" system - Y7/8s). That along side numeracy and literacy, kids do 'passion projects' (like junior school inquiry time, I guess), and there is less emphasis on the path of "pass this at 16, pass this at 18, degree, job, money" ... because that simply can'y always happen.
What I took from this book, was that schools should be as much places of community and socialisation as learning. That subjects should 'bleed' into each other more (eg. the unfamiliar text in English could be about a period of history the children have been studying). That the transition from junior to high school (in UK year 7) be softened (something that kin of works with NZ's "intermediate" system - Y7/8s). That along side numeracy and literacy, kids do 'passion projects' (like junior school inquiry time, I guess), and there is less emphasis on the path of "pass this at 16, pass this at 18, degree, job, money" ... because that simply can'y always happen.
September 24, 2024
An interesting read. I disagree with Sammy on numerous points, which made several sections harder for me to digest, but his discussion around what school is for was thought provoking.
I am willing to believe that Sammy is a good teacher, but the book seems to have been written based on the assumption that every teacher is good and has the same passion for teaching that he does. There is no discussion around what to do with bad teachers.
The suggestion at the end of the chapter on Personal Development that schools are in a better position than families to guide pupils on moral judgements concerned me the most.
Overall, I think it’s a book that’s worth reading, whether or not you agree with everything the author concludes - and perhaps worth mentioning that his conclusions are his vision of what is ‘right’ (by his own admission) rather than a realistic look at the world.
I am willing to believe that Sammy is a good teacher, but the book seems to have been written based on the assumption that every teacher is good and has the same passion for teaching that he does. There is no discussion around what to do with bad teachers.
The suggestion at the end of the chapter on Personal Development that schools are in a better position than families to guide pupils on moral judgements concerned me the most.
Overall, I think it’s a book that’s worth reading, whether or not you agree with everything the author concludes - and perhaps worth mentioning that his conclusions are his vision of what is ‘right’ (by his own admission) rather than a realistic look at the world.
October 13, 2025
Sammy Wright has been a teacher all his career and has put a lot into this book. It's easy to find a lot wrong with our education system, and he points out many of its flaws (epitomised by our ubiquitous exams and grades). As he puts it, the process of learning should be more important than the grades.
Too many pupils are put into an academic system which does not meet their needs, and equips them with few skills of use in the outside world. Once upon a time, they left at 16 - now they linger on in the education system until at least 18. Wright offers some tentative ideas for solutions, I am not a teacher, so I can't comment on how feasible they are. I suspect changes are unlikely to happen quickly enough.
Too many pupils are put into an academic system which does not meet their needs, and equips them with few skills of use in the outside world. Once upon a time, they left at 16 - now they linger on in the education system until at least 18. Wright offers some tentative ideas for solutions, I am not a teacher, so I can't comment on how feasible they are. I suspect changes are unlikely to happen quickly enough.
October 28, 2024
The first book chosen for our teachers' book club at my sixth form. Very readable and persuasive. A couple of insights I especially liked were:
- getting everyone to take their GCSEs at the end of year 11, with a significant minority bound to fail, is like making everyone take their driving test at the same time, not conducive to getting the majority to pass - which is surely what we want.
- the point of revision is not to pass exams - the point of exams is to make students revise so that knowledge is properly embedded.
- getting everyone to take their GCSEs at the end of year 11, with a significant minority bound to fail, is like making everyone take their driving test at the same time, not conducive to getting the majority to pass - which is surely what we want.
- the point of revision is not to pass exams - the point of exams is to make students revise so that knowledge is properly embedded.
October 14, 2024
So many books on education adopt one of the two prominent and polarising educational ideologies currently in vogue. In my opinion, this book is one of the few that correctly treats this dichotomy as false and is all the better for it while successfully outlining a potential middle ground that is achievable within the English state school system.
Recommend even for non-teachers.
Recommend even for non-teachers.
September 9, 2024
A very thought provoking book written by a head teacher that discusses our education system and the way our children are taught. It definitely highlights areas that would make the school environment a more enjoyable and engaging place for our children.
October 13, 2024
Amazing book. Absolutely worth reading, whether you are a teacher or not. I loved the structure and style. Very thought provoking.
November 19, 2024
Would read again. Interesting to see how the UK education system is analysed and rethought by Wright. I'd like to see more books like these about different education systems.
December 26, 2024
Rating: 4✨ | Date finished: 26th December 2024
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews