By Keith Metcalfe, Headmaster and CEO, Malvern College
The Changing Nature of Exams and Assessment
As Ofqual signals that, by the end of the decade, some GCSEs and A levels may be typed on laptops rather than written by hand, a lively national conversation has re-emerged about handwriting, digital equity and the future of assessment.
This debate is timely. It is also one we at Malvern College have been engaging with for years.
Four years ago, I argued publicly that handwritten exams risked becoming an anachronism. I said then that as the use of technology became more commonplace, pupils were writing less, losing speed and legibility, and experiencing ‘writing fatigue’. This, I suggested, unfairly penalised those students who were entirely capable of demonstrating strong understanding but were hampered by a format that bore little resemblance to the world they already knew – and the world of work they were preparing to enter.
Handwriting, Typing and Balance
I stand by that view. Ofqual’s announcement simply confirms that the sector is catching up with that way of thinking. However, it is important to be clear. Advocating for typed exams is not the same as abandoning handwriting. Nor should it be. Handwriting retains cognitive and cultural value, and it should remain part of a broad education.
The issue is balance. Pupils now complete much of their research on digital devices, many lessons involve collaborative online platforms, and teachers create, adapt and share materials digitally. Yet, when it comes to the most decisive moments in a child’s academic career, we require them to revert to pen and paper. Meanwhile, the very scripts they produce are scanned and marked on a screen. If the final act of the process is digital, we must question why the pupil’s act of creation cannot be as well.
Typing levels the playing field for pupils who think quickly but write slowly. It reflects the skills they will use in further study and employment. Most importantly, it ensures that assessments measure intellect and understanding rather than handwriting stamina.
At Malvern, that balance is already part of our culture. We continue to value handwriting, but pupils also use laptops regularly in lessons. Our Year 9s complete a dedicated computing course. Different departments choose the balance that best serves their discipline. The point is not choosing one skill over another but enabling pupils to be fluent in both.
Artificial Intelligence and Learning
Alongside the debate about handwriting, schools must confront another and equally important shift: artificial intelligence. The temptation is to draw a neat line between the ‘traditional’ and the ‘digital’ and to assume they are in conflict. They are not. The real question is not whether pupils should use AI – they will – but how they should use it.
AI should never be a shortcut – typing a question into a computer and copying the answer. Used in that way, AI reduces learning. AI minus IQ is simply outsourcing thinking, removing the struggle or the friction that builds intellect – it would be like deciding to train for a marathon, but asking your robot to do the miles of training for you whilst you sit on the sofa watching, with your leg muscles atrophy. IQ plus AI, however, is a powerful combination. When used intelligently, AI adds value – it adds intellectual muscle.
How We Use AI at Malvern College
One of our members of staff models this perfectly. For every fourth essay he marks, he runs it through an AI tool. The AI does not award the grade, and it cannot appreciate a pupil’s growth, flair or creativity. What it can do is offer an external perspective on missed points, overlooked angles or structural weaknesses. The teacher maintains professional judgment, and AI creates opportunities for greater reflection. The pupil benefits from both. This is a practical example of how human expertise and AI together can improve learning outcomes for both staff and pupil.
For the pupil, it is the one who first writes their answer or essay and then inputs this in to AI and asks it to explain to them how they could improve it, and then acts on the advice, who adds to their understanding and their intellect. The crucial point is that pupils must interrogate and understand the AI response in order to use it. AI cannot teach you if you cannot comprehend the output. It is the interplay between curiosity, questioning and comprehension that creates real intelligence.
What We Mean by Real Intelligence
At Malvern, we talk about developing EQ, IQ, and CQ (emotional, intellectual, and cultural intelligence). Increasingly, IQ must be reframed as IQ plus AI. We want pupils to leave us not simply with knowledge but with the ability to interrogate knowledge. Intelligence is not measured by the ability to memorise facts but by the willingness to ask why something works, why it matters and how it might behave differently under new conditions. As we have all rapidly learned, AI is all about question engineering.
This is why, on scholarship assessment days, I often ask pupils: “How do you measure your intelligence?” I tell them that how they approach an impossible question reveals how they think. The closest answers come from the pupils with the widest and greatest number of points of reference: those who read broadly, explore ideas, make connections, and are willing to follow curiosity rather than seek the quickest route to the right answer. Intelligence grows by collecting these points of reference and learning to triangulate between them, and that can indeed be taught.
Preparing Pupils for the Future
Exams will inevitably evolve. Assessment will modernise. AI will continue to expand. But curiosity, effort, judgement and the human capacity for independent thinking will remain irreplaceable.
The challenge for educators is not to protect pupils from technology, nor to throw out traditional skills, but to teach them the balance: handwriting and typing, human expertise and AI tools, foundational knowledge and creative questioning.
The future of real intelligence lies in this balance. Artificial intelligence can support, challenge and extend learning, but it cannot replace the curiosity that drives a young person to say: “I want to understand this,” or “But why?” That instinct is the heart of education, and it is where Malvern College will always focus its energy.
Want to explore this approach in practice?
Learn more about academic life at Malvern College or arrange a visit to experience it first-hand.
