I was talking to lady who in charge of organising the switch to academies and bachorloreattes (sp) etc in Essex (i did think of you TLS ha ha) and I put it to her that exams were easier now and she said the reason that poorly performing schools turn around in a couple of years is because basically they encourage students to take easy subjects to fiddle the figures. In my day this didn't happen so clearly the Conservatives are right to make the core subjects - english, maths, science more valued and those that are hairy fairy - drama, social studies, history less valued.