Exam Nation

An essential read – as entertaining as it is insightful – for anyone who cares about the way we treat young people … This book is a pleasure to read and its strength is that it is not … an enraged, politicised polemic. It is a considered and nuanced … diagnosis, looking at education from every possible angle … Exam Nation wears its sometimes disturbing findings lightly and mixes in healthy doses of self-awareness and black humour throughout … brilliant – Viv Groskop * Observer *A deeply absorbing book that should be read by anyone who wants to understand how our current system really works — or rather, about the many ways in which it doesn’t … Wright’s most powerful argument is that as long we have our current system in place we are simply wasting the potential of the long school years — and our nation’s young … Wright deserves the highest marks for giving us deep insight into his considerable experience in the classroom and elaborating on all these complex themes with subtlety and a keen intelligence * Financial Times *Well-researched, compelling and thought-provoking … funny and self-interrogating … such a compelling read, no matter your outlook on our educational system … it will force any reader interested in education, with whatever their prejudices, to think about the experience of school, what it is for and who it is serving. And how, perhaps, we might make it better – Lucy Denyer * Telegraph *Persuasive … Really this is a book about inequality and fairness … refreshingly unsentimental. He is clearly a superb teacher himself … Wright gives a series of good, quick and easy-to-follow guides to government education policy … His main point is this: schools are only part of a student’s life. They can make a big difference, but there’s a limit to how much they can mitigate the problems caused by entrenched poverty. This is not a call to return to the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’, just a polite request to engage with reality – Sam Freedman * Literary Review *A thoughtful and considered analysis of our education system that asks searching questions about what school is for … with sympathy and intelligence. He makes a series of recommendations for improvement … most of which are eminently desirable – Michael Gove * The Times, Book of the Week *No book in recent years has made quite the same impact on the education sector as this extraordinary volume. It is going to be quoted for generations to come… a brilliant read from start to finish * Church Times *The timing of Sammy Wright’s book couldn’t be better … [this] should be a good moment for some serious soul-searching about the state of our schools … His journey through the history of English education, its relationship to class, and our exam culture, meets that challenge … it is rich in analysis of the current problem and in solutions, too – Fiona Millar * Guardian *Exam Nation is compelling and complicated, much like the system it chronicles … on reflection, he is right – Pippa Bailey * New Statesman *To write this book, Wright has put in the hard yards. He visited 20 schools over the course of a year and interviewed hundreds of children … Wright’s talent is to let these voices shine through … Wright also has a neat turn of phrase; you can see how he’d be an inspirational English teacher * Daily Mail *A tremendous book, like the best lesson ever – informed, funny, fair – I’d defy any reader not to learn much of value, and not just about school – Richard Beard, author of Sad Little MenExtraordinary and brilliant, Exam Nation masterfully achieves a perfect mix of respectful storytelling and policy challenges, while coming up with real (sometimes uncomfortable) solutions. It stands alongside sociology classics like Learning to Labour. It is the book education has been waiting for – Laura McInerney, co-founder of Teacher Tapp, former editor of Schools WeekWritten with heart and humour, Exam Nation brilliantly illuminates the realities and blindspots of the exam system. It is not only essential reading for educators at every level, it is for anyone who wants to understand how the system actually operates and what it’s really set up to do. Full of knowledge and insight, this is a book that we all can learn from – Jeffrey Boakye, author of I Heard What You SaidWhat a fantastic book: Exam Nation is intelligent, closely-argued and rightfully angry about the state of our schools, and makes a persuasive case for what needs to happen. It deserves to be read by everyone who cares about education – Carol Atherton, author of Reading LessonsDrawing on his two decades as a teacher, Wright incisively interrogates the British education system * i Newspaper The Best New Books Out In August *At last. A report from the front line of schooling that shows how British education has become swamped by the cult of the exam, a gargantuan and fanatical exercise in quantification that contributes little or nothing to preparing children for modern life – Simon JenkinsFinally. A book that tells the truth about Britain’s national exam obsession - and the harm it does – Anthony Seldon

Sammy Wright is Head of School at a large secondary in Sunderland. He sat on the government’s Social Mobility Commission from 2018 to 2021, becoming a key voice in the debates over exam grades during the pandemic. He has taught for twenty years at schools in Oxfordshire, London and the North East. His debut novel Fit won the Northern Book Prize.