Predicted grades

[Bestseller]

How do schools set them and how/why does it matter to the school?

DS2 is applying for a post A-level course (not UCAS) and needs to put down his predicted grades.

He didn't apply himself well to begin with in lower sixth and his current predicted grades reflect his AS results and are the minimum requirement for the course.

However, his current results are much better and improving. He'd really like this to be shown in his predicted grades.

One teacher has happily agreed to change it, the others are saying he needs to demonstrate the improvement over a longer period.

I understand that, but ideally he'd put this application in within the next couple of weeks.

Can anyone offer advice? I'm not sure how "insistent" I should be with school.

[Bestseller]

Anyone?

[hertsandessex]

This is a tricky one and lots down to negotiation. Teachers don't want to set predicted grades that are extremely unlikely to be achieved as it won't reflect well on them and similarly for the school overall if applying somewhere where they will send students every year. Also not in the student's interest to exaggerate grades and apply somewhere that is unrealistic - get offer and then don't get the grades. However, in our experience teachers/schools are flexible within reason if grades need to be at a certain level and the student is committed to working hard. Maybe talk to head of year/head of sixth form to explain the situation.

[Clonakilty]

Be careful not to overestimate what your DS is likely to get; I know of so many students who ended up going through Clearing and taking places at universities they’d not visited because they were rejected by their preferred university when they didn’t get the grades. And this was only a few months ago.

[FredFlinstoneMadeOfBones]

Different schools have different procedures. In answer to why does it matter? The schools have a responsibility to make an honest assessment of the child or it will cause huge issues for admissions when high percentages of students don't make the required grades - which is bad for the provider and the student.

I know many schools do a predictions based on end of year tests from Y12 (now they're not taking AS's) but give the student another chance to test again after the summer if they felt they underperformed. They'll also take into account the general trajectory of the student's performance.

I think it would be reasonable for your son to arrange a meeting with the teacher in question and try to put forward his case.

[SassitudeandSparkle]

If the current predicted grades match the AS results, isn't it going to look odd if the predicted grades are above the AS results?