Pupils want lessons to be harder

The researchers fear pupils are not being stretched

Many secondary school pupils in England find their school work too easy and want harder lessons, research suggests.

Researchers from the Institute of Education at London University spoke to 6,000 pupils in 45 secondary schools.

They found 25% of pupils aged 13 and 14 wanted to be in a different set to do harder work in maths, 20% in science and 18% in English.

The Department for Education and Skills said the government was committed to supporting gifted and talented pupils.

The report also found lower ability sets tended to include disproportionate numbers of children from low socio-economic groups.

"Given that set placement can have such important consequences for individual pupils, it is a matter for concern that allocation to sets or streams is a somewhat arbitrary affair and is not based entirely on prior academic achievement or ability," the report said.

Underestimating pupils

Professor Susan Hallam, who led the research, said the findings suggested that too many teachers were underestimating the abilities of their pupils.

"It seems highly likely that what is happening is that teachers' expectations are not sufficiently high for quite a lot of students," she said.

The crucial thing is getting the work set at the right level Professor Susan Hallam

"Given that the government is intent on raising standards, that is perhaps a little worrying."

The study found that few pupils wanted to move sets to do easier work.

Those who did tended to be pupils in the top sets who found the pace of lessons too hard.

"The crucial thing is getting the work set at the right level so that it is challenging, and difficult, therefore, but not so difficult that they can't cope with it," said Professor Hallam.

"If it is too easy, it's just boring. And then there is a danger that the kids get fed-up and start misbehaving."

Able pupils

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "We want every child to maximise their potential by stretching the most able pupils and targeting those in danger of falling behind.

"The best schools already aim to get the most out of each individual pupil and we want that approach to be the norm across the system.

"That's precisely why last month we announced new proposals to enable young people to take Key Stage 2 and 3 tests when they are ready, while giving one-to-one tuition to bring other young people up to the expected standard.

"This is on top of our £1.1 bn investment in personalised learning and our national gifted and talented programme, to develop the interest and aptitudes of more advanced children."