West Country News
X Factor and BGT on English GCSE course
9:50pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
SIMON Cowell isn’t noted for a turn of phrase to match Shakespeare and you’d hardly rank him among the literary greats.
Yet his hit TV shows Britain’s Got Talent and the X Factor are being studied alongside Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet by English GCSE students at Kingsmead School, Wiveliscombe.
A parent, Joseph Reynolds, who reckons the syllabus has been dumbed down since he immersed himself in classics like Great Expectations and Beowulf, has complained to the school and Education Secretary Michael Gove.
But Kingsmead disagrees, pointing out that students enjoy excellent English results.
American Mr Reynolds, a marine engineer, met governors to complain about his daughter and her classmates studying the shows and Heat magazine, when he felt they, like him 30 years ago, should be exposed to “the best that has been thought and written”.
Kingsmead head teacher Geoff Tinker said Mr Reynolds had been handed a “full breakdown” of the English course, designed by exam board Edexcel, which does involve “a significant number of classics”.
Mr Tinker added: “He’s got a personal viewpoint which isn’t held by myself, English staff, governors, nor the appeal committee that’s met to study his complaint.
“We’re very proud of the excellent results we achieved in English, which stand scrutiny by anyone – they’re well above the national average.”
Students on the course answer questions on source materials, including the BGT website and a Heat cover featuring X Factor twins Jedward.
An Edexcel spokesman said the talent TV theme was optional for schools and the range of sources studied was “entirely appropriate”.
*Mr Reynolds featured in the County Gazette and on-line at somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news in 2010 when he criticised the use of The Simpsons cartoon programme in English classes at Kingsmead and other schools.