Are GCSEs the best thing for 16-year-olds to show as they leave secondary education? Is there a better method to assess what they've achieved in school and to set them up for their next step?  
  
Niall Paterson explores the future for GCSEs on this episode – and asks why where you live can affect the grades you get. 
  
He speaks to two headteachers - Becky Arnold at Framingham Earl high school near Norwich, and Farhan Adam at Crown Hills Community College in Leicester who was awarded "headteacher of the year" in 2023. 

Plus, Louis Hodge of the research organisation Education Policy Institute (EPI) joins Niall to discuss the "disadvantage gap" in today's GCSE results.   
   
Producer: Emma Rae Woodhouse 
Editor: Paul Stanworth