Settle a private v state argument for me?

This.

It’s not about “fooling” the university admissions team. It’s about allowing / enabling / making it easier for the university to offer a place to a predominantly privately educated applicant.

'Just keep out of it' - slightly condescending

Is starting A level courses at the end of year 11 really a thing? I have never known this happen in the schools I worked in or that DTs attended. Once the last exam was done, year 11 disappeared. Thos intending to study English Lit might be given a few books to read, and a friend’s daughter intending to start learning Greek in sixth form was instructed to learn the alphabet, but that was it.
Any new starters in sixth form could be given the same tasks.

It wouldnt work for contextual offers

Whether it would work for just getting a normal offer at all i dont know.

I think overall getting the best grade you can is the best way to get to the university you want.

Is the message 'it will be better for uni applications' just cover for the parents needing to save money and this is trying to make a virtue out of a necessity.

The change is fine if everyone is doing it. The loss of continuity can be an issue if the majority of 6th form students are continuing. They may have already started the A level syllabus at the end of the GCSE year. New starters will have to catch up. Not impossible but not all 6th forms are good at supporting this.

Fostering independence, 'good for the soul' etc etc will depend on the individual student.

We have experience of moving DD for 6th form. In her case it was moving from a failing school to a better school. DD settled well enough and made friends but no deep friendships. Her friends now are all from her old school.

In our small city only 1 of the 5 state schools even gets contextual offers and it’s certainly not the school you would voluntarily send a bright child for a levels

Don't you have to cite where you got your GCSE in the UCAS applications? So the Uni would know.

They can assume that parents suddenly got in a difficult financial position and couldn't pay private any longer or indeed tried to gain an advantage.

I don't really see the point when in the end, more and more of the top employers are opting to select their graduates without looking at which Uni they come from.

Quite @YippieKayakOtherBuckets. It surprises me just how little research people do before they announce a plan to outfox Oxford or Cambridge admissions departments with the classic and well worn “shift to State for A Levels”.

All the information about contextual offers and what Oxbridge is looking for is freely and abundantly available and it’s pretty clear that this trick won’t work. Oxbridge has the chance to interview candidates and looks not just for a level of academic achievement but a deep interest in their subject, a willingness and ability to explain their thinking however “incorrect” the answer, curiosity, “teachability”, flexibility - things that can’t necessarily be guaranteed by a string of A* from any school, state or private.

Then there is the question of whether it’s the right place anyway. It doesn’t suit everyone and are many excellent universities and many excellent courses in universities that are not so revered. I am glad that Oxbridge has modernised and widened its intake, to have traditionally taken such a high proportion of students from such a small pool of schools did no one any favours.

Just keep out of it. People do this kind of thing all ths time. Not worth arguing about.

And that's perfectly ok. Kids who are educated privately are just as entitled to state sixth form, even the really good ones. It just won't make any difference Uni wise. But if the local college is better than private then why shouldn't they move?

Indeed folk who obsess for years about certain universities - what will they do if a child want's to do something else?
I am watching a couple of my son's friends being 'forced' to go to a certain university (the course is irrelevant) as are the wishes of the young person being made to do this. The young person wanted a gap year and was due to travel and work abroad with my son, but now has had his dreams crushed by parents who think this is the 'best thing' for him.
So for me the issue is not around private vs state, it is around the rights of a child and young adult and the nastiness of a parent who puts their views above that of their child.

No idea but these people who obsess over getting their kids into Oxford and go to these outrageous length are just ridiculous.

What our head told us was that it's more complicated than that- unis use a range of factors in their assessment (such as postcode) so there's no guarantee you'd get an advantage.

It's also a really cruel thing to take a child out of a school they're presumably happy at simply to increase their chance of getting into Oxford or Cambridge, somewhere they might not actually want to go to and which in any event they may well not succeed in winning a place- most people don't even from state schools. Imagine if the last 2 years of your schooling were focused on Oxford to this extent and then not getting in. Awful, fuck your kids up for life.

Universities are very, very aware that this is a thing and won't be that easily fooled!

I think she's fundamentally misunderstood how contextual offers are constructed. Simply attending a state school alone is not enough - no-one is getting a contextual offer from attending e.g. Hills Road or The Latymer alone despite the fact that they are state schools because they have high levels of academic progress and student progression to university. Other criteria such. as postcode, FSM, engagement with outreach programmes etc also apply.

No idea but I'd be surprised if they didn't look at your former years particularly in relation to where you got your GCSEs.
I'd do the same probably if I thought it would benefit my children. I'd imagine the parents will save themselves a tonne of money in fees and the school they have in mind will not be the local inner city failing comprehensive ....it will be a tried and tested 'route 'and the school will be delighted to accept them.

@Wincher

It does, my dd got dispensation for our postcode and the failing 14-18 school she left to board at 16 (on bursary) she didn't need the consideration in the end because she got the grades

It's the school they attended for GCSEs that counts.

I'm not sure of your point here.

I'm not saying private education is necessarily unethical. My suggestion is that it is unethical to buy an advantageous education and then to attempt to conceal this advantage through state sixth form in order to take advantage of fair access protocols.

Check out Esher College or Peter Symonds. Full of London private parents gaming the system. Another favourite, ticking “first member of family to go to university” box. How are the universities going to know it’s not true? At the end of the day, if private parents feel like their offspring are being discriminated against due to their private education, they’ll try to mitigate against it. People will do what they can for their offspring. Has no one seen Operation Varsity Blues on Netflix? I’m not saying it’s right, it’s just a fact.