Call for pupils to sit GCSEs at 15

Only around half of pupils get five GCSEs at grades A* to C

Pupils should take GCSE exams at 15 and spend three years, instead of the current two, at sixth form, an influential head teachers' think-tank has recommended.

The Leadership Network (LN) believes this will cut the current high drop-out rate at 16 - the minimum leaving age - and encourage a more mature approach towards study.

The first year of sixth form would be compulsory, making students less likely to leave before the age of 18.

Longer course times would also encourage A-level candidates to do more voluntary work and community service, the LN added.

Staying on

Co-ordinator Ray Tarleton said: "This would give students additional motivation to progress into a post-16 environment, which is more adult and mature.

"It would also address at a stroke the problem of drop out at post-16. This is because the first year of the three-year sixth-form programme would be compulsory and, having invested time and energy in that first year, the likelihood of students wishing to continue onto the end of sixth form would obviously be greater."

Earlier this month, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development raised concerns that the UK was not keeping pace with the rest of the industrialised world in keeping 16 year olds in education.

At present, around 50% of pupils leave school without five GCSE A* to C grades.

Chris Hilliard, head of Jack Hunt School in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, said: "Measurement of school performance must move with the times, if schools are to change their culture and make real improvements.

"We need a much richer form of accountability. The government wants schools to be braver when it comes to taking risks, innovating and trying different ways of doing things but there are still major barriers to this, as schools are not currently getting any recognition for taking these kinds of approaches."

Mike Tomlinson, the former Chief Inspector of Schools in England, is carrying out a review of education from the age of 14 to 19.

In a preliminary report, he recommended an over-arching diploma to replace the separate systems of GCSEs and A-levels.

Students would progress through a "climbing frame" of diploma levels, within a "coherent" scheme.

If approved, any changes are not likely to be implemented for at least five to 10 years.

The Department for Education and Skills said it would wait for the final Tomlinson report's publication before commenting on the LN's proposals.

The LN is a working group of the National College for School Leadership, set up by the government to look at ways of improving education.