Exam Nation: Why Our Obsession with Grades Fails Everyone – and a Better Way to Think About School

Brought to you by Penguin.

Exams, grades, league tables, Ofsted reports. All of them miss the point of school and together they are undermining our whole approach to education.

What is school for? Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher, hundreds of interviews and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, head teacher Sammy Wright exposes the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focussing on the grades pupils get in neatly siloed, academic subjects, we end up ranking them and our schools into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.

Wright's entertaining and hugely important book shows that schools are - and should be - so much more than this. With wisdom and humour, balancing idealism and pragmatism, he sets out what a better way would look like and how we might get there.


'An essential read – as entertaining as it is insightful – for anyone who cares about the way we treat young people' Observer

‘Deeply absorbing . . . Wright deserves the highest marks’ Financial Times

'Such a compelling read, no matter your outlook' Telegraph

‘Brilliantly illuminates the realities and blindspots of the system’ Jeffrey Boakye

‘A thoughtful and considered analysis . . . that asks searching questions . . . with sympathy and intelligence’ Michael Gove, The Times

‘Extraordinary and brilliant . . . the book education has been waiting for’ Laura McInerney, co-founder of Teacher Tapp

‘A tremendous book, like the best lesson ever – informed, funny, fair’ Richard Beard

*AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK*

© Sammy Wright 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024