My Little 2.0 Project

As with many other teachers, I received an email from Pearson announcing the introduction to their shiny new qualification. It promised so much, it felt too good to be true, but definitely warranted further investigation!

I went into researching Pearson Edexcel English Language 2.0 Lift, with quite a specific remit of 3 ideals:

User friendly– being upfront about the skills students needed to use in their answers, without the hidden suggestions.

Functional Skills feel, but with the capacity to stretch and challenge like a GCSE– The jump from Functional Skills to GCSE has always been so vast, that many students struggle when they’ve progressed from Level 1 to GCSE. There needed to be a middle ground.

A friendlier 19th Century text– Our current board used texts, which in the past have been quite dry and boring. I’ve found students struggled to relate to them, so when it came to comparing a 19th Century text with a 20th Century text, many just fell apart. A number of students are not able to visualise themselves in that position, or understand what the writers are experiencing, thinking, feeling let alone understand why.

It seemed that on first glance that the 2.0 could fit a lot of my wishlist, but there was not a lot of information published, just enough to suggest it might be what I was looking for. There was still that doubt and unease: we’ve all been there before, this board, or this qualification promises so much, then fails to deliver. Pearson 2.0, would it do what it says on the tin? Would it truly be something different, or would it be as much as a muchness as the other disappointing qualifications I had taught in the past?

Wavering my doubts, I took a deep breath and contacted my HOD, asking her if it could be an option for our students. She agreed with me that it had potential. Apparently she was looking for someone to find out more. That someone just had to be me! A new spark had been ignited within, leaving me wanting to fan the flames of change.

It wasn’t just our course options that were potentially evolving: from out of nowhere I started to become this confident person, suddenly able to voice their opinions, asking the difficult questions in meetings that everyone else was avoiding. This alternate version of me even started to feel comfortable taking risks- I actually went and asked to take a risk!? Those that know me well, will tell you how hard I find risk taking, and especially making requests for something other than stationary supplies, was almost unheard of!

If just the concept of Pearson 2.0 could do this for me, what could it do for my students? I just had to find out! Anticipation simmering over, I signed up for the Launch Event, June 2021.