Not allowed to do Maths A'level....with an A

Wow this is terrible! So they don't really give a shit about the kids, just their influence on school stats?

noblegiraffe
That's an interesting chart but I would wonder how accurate it is for certainly C grade, and possibly B for a standard 16yo continuing straight into 6th form.

We can see from on here, it seems to be unlikely most places will take 6th formers on from a C, and fairly unlikely they will be taken on from a B.
Firstly, that means the numbers will be relatively small, but also presumably a certain number of those are taken on with special circumstances (eg they thoroughly expected an A/A* but made a hash on the day) or are mature students who may only be doing maths A-level which means they can concentrate on it.

And they wonder why there's a shortage of maths teachers...
I'd shop around. Some schools would be delighted to take him with an A grade, indy, state or a 6th form college - somewhere is bound to take him and his ambitions seriously. I know someone who's just completed their MSc in Engineering who got a C at A level.

That just doesn't make sense. Does the school have another agenda here? Do they want to get rid of him, or were his other grades poor? Is there something else going on?
Not surprised you are looking elsewhere!

piggy

If a school is saying that in their experience kids who have As go on to scrape Ds then they're telling you their teaching isn't very good. And you're paying for it! Most likely they just want an easy ride and to protect their stats.

This graph shows impact of GCSE result on A-level result. It is biased towards high performers as it only records those who took the subject past AS (pretty much no one takes A-level with a C and most of those who take it with a B stop at AS level). But you can see the picture for those with an A who continue to A-level (which is the majority of students) is way better than 'most likely scrape a D'.

But your DS will need to hit the ground running. He should have been doing bridging work over the summer and should be revising now ready to start. Many colleges have a short test a couple of weeks in to see if your basics are good enough.

Applequeen: happy to help 😁 if your DS is motivated and keen on his future career path he can do it! It is a big jump and hard work but it pays off!

Teacher here- not Maths. I think it is fair to say that you shouldn't do an A'level in anything you didn't get a B or above in at GCSE (ideally an A, but we don't always get the choices, do we). The jump from Year 11 to 12 is large and requires far more independence than GCSE (in my subject anyway, where they are hand fed for success throughout KS4).

Your DCs experience seems extreme to me but i would have thought Maths is much more an innate ability than some subjects, so it's plausible. Blimey though! Tough rules!

note to noble - most teachers are not statisticians :)

Trouble is these days, rather than looking at the individual, their track record,attendance , effort, schools are resorting to statistical , likely outcomes (ignoring completely that stats contain'most likely' outcomes and therefore suggest plenty achieve above and below these!). All of this to maintain league table position etc.

My DS got a version of this the other day when his sixth form college told him he had a 70% chance of failing A Levels! They misunderstood their own stats. Teachers are not statisticians.

Maths generally has an elitist higher entry requirement than other A Level subjects but A* or nothing is silly, especially this year. And nothing would suggest an A grade GCSE student can't be an engineer!

Got somewhere else. I got an A (two years ago) at GCSE. This year I got an A at a-level. That subject saved my skin getting into uni. Another sixth form will definatly take him

Ok so I did my gcses about 10years ago now, but I 'only' got an A (personally I was chuffed!) and went on to get a B at ALevel. I did do a few results to get the grade, but I think the HT is talking rubbish. Perfectly possible if your ds applies himself.

If it's a super selective indy , I can understand why. At the school I work at ( not as a teacher) most kids get an A or A. If they can't get an A with the amount of coaching they receive, they probably won't do that well at A level. Certainly they can't do A level if they 'only' get an A at GCSE.

Good they let you know now it's not the place for your DS. I'm sure there's someplace better. See this as an opportunity & lucky escape from unsupportive environment.

It's been many years since I did GCSEs but I was placed in intermediate so came out with a b (best I could get). Did a levels and got highest mark in the school (a) and went to university and got a 1st in maths there, also highest mark in year.

I'd look elsewhere if I were you. Good luck to DS.

Our school has the same policy. The head is correct that GCSE grades give a very accurate reflection of what the A Level grade will be, especially in Maths.

Look around for another A level provider or depending on what he wants to do with an engineering qualification go straight into an apprenticeship.

Plenty of sixth forms, most, allow you to do Maths A level with an A. If he wants to be an engineer, he needs to be applying to them.

That's terrible. I got an A for Maths GCSE and got a B for A Level.

A couple of DD's friends achieved an A at GCSE and only managed Cs at AS level. Although, part of the reason is the maths teacher isn't very good (IMO). He was DD's maths teacher in year 11 and wasn't very good at explaining stuff and rushed the lessons. I sent DD to a tutor who managed to up her class grades from Bs and Cs to an A in the exam.

There was no way she was going to do maths at A level though. I think to do well in it you need excellent teaching and a talent for maths.