Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Secondary school league tables are out

58 replies

LondonMother · 24/01/2013 10:24

This is an interesting one for people in SE London.

OP posts:
breadandbutterfly · 29/01/2013 11:59

How do the pupils like doing A Levels over 3 years? Sounds like a good way to reduce the pressure. And study in more depth - Gove should like it.

Yellowtip · 29/01/2013 10:26

gelo to counter your point about A Levels, you can probably concede that being top of the table for GCSEs all taken in one go in Y10 is fairly impressive. They must be doing something right!

MordionAgenos · 29/01/2013 08:24

Gelo you are clearly confusing me with someone else.

gelo · 28/01/2013 23:12

AQA Bacc info here
Technically what the school said was correct but a bit misleading. AS only required and if they are doing Crit Thinking too then Gen studies isn't really required.

For some reason I thought your dd was a year younger - time flies I guess.

MordionAgenos · 28/01/2013 22:49

DD1 has just done her A level options. You can assume what you want. If you don't want to believe me then that's up to you. The letter I have which was sent to the parents says that Gen Studies is needed for the Ebacc and they do GS to A2 level. Perhaps they do do over and above what is required. 4 Other academic A levels is over and above what is required as well. It's a bit of a theme.

gelo · 28/01/2013 22:43

Well you should know, so I'll assume that's right even though you were wrong about the ebacc. With 3 years to do them all and bright kids it doesn't sound too much. No wonder they have such impressive league table points per candidate scores!

MordionAgenos · 28/01/2013 22:17

I told you what they do, they do crit thinking AS, general studies A2, 4 other A2s and the extended project. General studies does not replace a 4th academic A level. Some kids do 5 plus general studies.

gelo · 28/01/2013 21:18

AQA Bacc requires either general studies OR crit thinking to AS level, not A2 Mordion. No idea what's done in Colyton, but if more than AS in one of those subjects it's over and above what's needed for AQA bacc.

MordionAgenos · 28/01/2013 20:55

Oak man that's incorrect. The kids do the AQA bac in addition to their A levels. The AQA Bacc requires general studies A level. They do 4 A levels PLUS general studies (plus critical studies to AS) plus the extended project.

oakman · 28/01/2013 16:10

Colyton A level student are take General Studies to AS level only, then usually drop this and go on to take 3/4 onto A2. I don't think this is designed to manipulate league table figure, simply to give student a broad educational base. I must point out that the BBC 2013 secondary school league table placed Colyton at the top, which is quite a mean achievment considering student take there GCSE's in year10

TotallyBS · 28/01/2013 12:59

The "I" stands for International. It's supposed to be more demanding than your bog standard GCSE.

CarlingBlackMabel · 28/01/2013 12:44

What is an iGCSE?

mumzy · 25/01/2013 22:41

I'm surprised they don't count igcses I thought they had now being approved for state schools. You need a degree in cryptology to understand the current exam system [ shakes head and wanders off muttering to herself]

prosopon · 25/01/2013 22:12

the "top" state schools make their students do General Studies, Colchester certainly do that as well as Colyton. The Financial Times tables strip it out and therefore are slightly more use.

mumzy · 25/01/2013 17:15

Well ds1 indie is languishing in the 2000's and this is a school who sends 25% of its intake to oxbridge and the rest to Russell Group universities. They also do almost entirely igcses and don't have VA scores. If i was assessing a school for my dcs I would rather know which unis their pupils went and the subjects studied i think these league tables are seriously flawed.

GCSEChaos · 25/01/2013 13:19

For Edexcel you need to take English Lang & Lit for the specification to be met. I dont know about other exam boards.

TotallyBS · 25/01/2013 13:15

Ditto iGCSE comment. DS's school is in top 20 when you look at A level rankings but it drops dramatically when you look at the tables being discussed. The reason? A lot of their subjects are iGCSEs which aren't given full/any weight in these type of tables.

stclemens · 24/01/2013 18:36

Doh (penny drops)!

Samestoryhere · 24/01/2013 17:03

Stclemens, I was referring to the Head's initials. Sounds like that's a trio then Smile

TheReturnoftheSmartArse · 24/01/2013 15:57

We're WHS too ...

stclemens · 24/01/2013 15:51

no we're WHS so it is clearly a wider issue...

TheReturnoftheSmartArse · 24/01/2013 15:31

I love HH!

Honestyisbest · 24/01/2013 15:28

This league table is clearly flawed. It's a joke.
Many league tables which include indes and state don't recognise the iGCSE which many indie school prefer for maths, sciences etc hence the lower overall score. You can get better info on here!!!!

Samestoryhere · 24/01/2013 14:28

St Clemens - HH?

stclemens · 24/01/2013 14:24

I wonder if this is the same GDST head that has just emailed me as well....

Swipe left for the next trending thread