Do exams pass the test?

Was Covid a missed opportunity?

A treatment by Millie Hayhurst

 Synopsis
A story told by GCSE students, teachers, professors and more explaining the relatable story of the stress
exams put students under. Zac and friends tell us what change they would like to see happen in the education
system. Dr Love expresses his love for teaching and how he, too, has fallen out of love with GCSEs.
Professor Gordon Stobart throws light onto other education systems around the world. Opinions will be
changed, with the hope that people will take a step back and ask themselves, are exams the best, up to date
way, to assess knowledge amongst 16 year old's. Claire Steiner will unravel the characteristics businesses
really look for when employing people and Rachel will unfold the unfortunate news about mental health
rising and why that may be. The only question on the audiences mind after watching will be?
Do exams really pass the test?
 History
My year group was the first and only year to not sit GCSE exams since their creation in 1986. Teacher
assessment was used as a temporary solution due to the loss of learning thanks to Covid-19. When teacher
assessment was bought in place, many hoped that they would become a more permanent thing within the UK
education system, it showed us all that exams aren’t the only way to go. However, things returned to almost
normal the next year and grade boundaries got higher instead. In September I will be going to university
having never done GCSEs or A-levels, something I was told I had to do since the age of five to get anywhere.
I won’t be the only one in this situation. So if exams were really that important, how am I still going to
university with an unconditional offer?
 Filmmaking approach
'Do exams pass the test?’ will be an interviewed led documentary. I will also have a voiceover and I will
present a small part of the documentary. The interviewees will be shown on screen so that the audience can
connect with the interviewees and make it overall more emotional. I will add B-rolls throughout the
documentary to make it as engaging as possible. The B-rolls will hopefully make it look more cinematic and
professional. On top of this, I will use archival footage of news reports and screenshots of news articles so
that the viewers can understand that it is a widely spoken about topic.
 Interviewees
I have a range of interviewees that will be involved in this documentary including: Dr Love, Professor
Gordon Stobart, GCSE students, Claire Steiner and Rachel Crothers. All of these people will provide different
insights to lots of different micro topics included in this documentary. Dr Love has been a teacher for 30
years so he is well qualified to talk about his opinions on GCSEs. Professor Gordon Stobart has a PhD in the
education system and has carried lots of research studies to do with this. Rachel Crothers is a counsellor and
has seen an increase in her services especially after Covid. Claire Steiner massively helped with the creation
of the Travel and Tourism Diploma so is a strong advocate for vocational courses and the GCSE students are
about to take their exams in May so right in the midst of the chaos of exams.
 Locations
For this documentary, I thought that using as many different locations would be the best in keeping the
audience engaged. I tried to find locations that best suited each interviewees. So for Dr Love I chose to film
him in a science classroom and capture a lot of B-rolls from there. Two of the interviews I had to conduct
over Zoom as they were too far away to make it in person. Claire was in my living room to present her
professional in a professional setting. I wanted my GCSE students to feel as comfortable as possible so placed
them almost outside but sat in my kitchen and I sat with them and had a conversation with them.