What a screwup at NLCS

Happy New Year!
Regarding homework- homework is good as long it serves a purpose and not just for the sake of it, better having to spend time doing homework rather than spending time on social media or having private tuition after school.

The “absolute zero focus on happiness and wellbeing” is an outright lie - people should really refrain from making such sweeping comments when they actually have no direct experience of a school. A 4+ interview or offer does not qualify. This thread is so full of vitriol from people who are, frankly, speculating and condemning the school without evidence that, to me, it represents the very worst of online life. Don’t tag me, I am out.

That was not my daughter's experience of NLCS (and we had her sister at Habs as comparison -very similar and both very good schools). (Neither could get into the other's school - it was no plan to have both at different schools). There were some girls who were very hard working, personally driven but that was from the girl not the school. In fact I thought I remembered at one stage it was the tradition that no holiday homework was ever set - I remember it as relaxed, more so than some other schools, not worse than other similar schools, better on that front.

My daughter spent a lot of time on sport, by the way. It was certainly not all work and no play by any means. If everyone who joins a school is fairly bright then you don't have to work quite as hard as those who aren't in more mixed schools so arguably the pressure is actually less than for some children who are set academic targets they cannot meet because their parents are wanting them to perform above their abilities.

@sendsummer it's hard to disagree with that. It is terrible stressful for so many young students.

homework stretches to 3+ hours per night. I do wonder how parents get drawn into this as being a ‘good thing’ when the most competitive universities are full of DCs from schools who gave far less homework even in sixth form.

My DD got in at 4+ and we turned it down. Didn't like the culture: girls didn't seem happy, school seemed a crazy hothouse, and Headteacher talked proudly about churning out "compliant" girls. Absolutely zero focus on wellbeing and happiness, and a pathological focus on "confidence" and results. Six years later, we've never once regretted that decision. MN is full of parents pretty unhappy with the school, much more so than any other top London day school that you read about on here. Given the spread of amazing day schools in London, I'd be very surprised if all the negative press didn't have an impact on NLCS application numbers this year - or, at least, the quality of the applicants they get.

@Elij00 I actually do not know the Margin of Error these big name schools operate at. What do they do?

I agree with @mbell in that I'm not sure I'd use the word "lovely" (maybe it's a French/English language thing, don't know). The school pushes the girls very hard and expectations are high. A girl needs to be ready to work extremely long hour to succeed at NLCS.

@ CruCru

Yup they don't need to at all.

@ NLCSmummy

Exactly. Tbh the dip would be so insignificant it'll be most likely not felt. I'm sure you as a parent of a child at NLCS know the Margin of Error these big name schools operate at. I said the same at the Everyone's invited thread where the Big name schools were grabbing all the headlines and was proven right.

NLCS is highly academic, highly selective and pushes its girls HARD. The grade inflation is a disgrace and embarrassing but these are not girls who were going to get an even spread of A-E grades. The majority were always on track for A-A grades. It’s part of what makes the school so popular and oversubscribed.

I don’t think I would call it a “lovely” school. It’s driven and sets the highest possible expectations of the girls. The girls are sets tests almost weekly and homework stretches to 3+ hours per night. There would have been no shortage of “evidence” to support teacher assessed grades. Our experience of having a DD there is that the focus on happiness is much lower down the list of the schools priorities. My view is this is where the new Head should be placing the focus on when she starts.

It’s so sad what has taken place at NLCS and the girls who will forever have their grades tainted.

two DDs thru NLCS, DD1 at uni, DD2 still at NLCS. it's a lovely school that we've been so happy with thru the years. yes, it's going thru some hiccups now but it's still a strong academic place that families should consider.

Agreed, I think at the margin they'll see some applicants go elsewhere, but that's okay. Schools go up and down, this is likely just a bit of a dip.

I remember seeing adverts for NLCS (in a schools / education supplement) and being surprised. I’ve never met anyone who’s managed to get their daughter into NLCS (although I only know a handful who’ve tried). They don’t need to advertise.

@ CruCru

Exactly crucru. NLCS is still extremely oversubscribed so what that tells me is that the Noise making is mostly done online but once application starts, everyone reverts back to normal. We are talking about one of the very best schools in the Land that sends tons to Oxbridge,Imperial,UCL,LSE and the likes whilst sending many to the best colleges Stateside. Yh not happening.

@ PermanentTemporary

Not saying I personally would give them leeway but Most parents on the whole would and tbh you can include me on that list too. Most Parents aren't willing to sacrifice their children's academics on the altar of an inflated grade result that many schools participated in btw.

Herewegoagain78., thanks. I hadn't spotted that - the finding of no malpractice. In that case we should just be praising the clever hard working girls and their teachers and previous Head not castigating the school.

absolutely, NLCS is a good school, no question

www.best-schools.co.uk/uk-school-league-tables/list-of-league-tables/top-100-schools-by-a-level
Looking at the above league table based on this year's exams, NLCS is still one of the top schools, ok, SPGS is better regarding results but this has always been the case (I think).

2022 Physics A-level results were very strong vs history for other schools as well. Look at SPGS, exact same thing. So, I don't think NLCS' 2022 Physics A-level results really tells us much unfortunately.

I have said this before on another thread of similar nature. Please look at what this cohort achieved in 2019 at GCSE level. It was an extremely high performing year group.
I am surprised and disappointed to see fellow NLCS parents being so unsupportive of the school, given that we have been informed that the result of the investigation is that there have been “no findings of malpractice” and that it is now closed. Are you suggesting that we are being lied to?

It has been in the tp 3 of any kind of school for A levels at times and was the first academic school for girls. I was against the cancellation of exams. I do think if the grades were out of line and the rules were broken for TAGs then that is not on, but have not seen a final report yet. The school is very academically selective. One of my daughters went there and I am sorry this has happened and it remains a very good school.

The state decided generally for everyone that grades would in 2022 in the first year of real exams slowly drop back to teh 2019 normal year so it is likely 2022 results are higher for all schools than 2023 will be and 2023 will be similar to 2019 in terms of percentage of As, A stars etc

I have not read the rules which set out how the TAGs or whatever had to be done were set. May be the rules were not clear and it is possible that ultimately a court will have to decide if laws were broken.

Is there an official report regarding the outcome of an investigation?
I have to say, looking at the results published on the NLCS website for 2022 I am less critical about the scale of the grade inflation. For example in Physics: 10 out of 12 were A*, 1 A and 1 C ( choosing this as an example as Physics was mentioned in a previous post). This is an outstanding achievement.

They might also now be at university on courses which are moving too fast for them considering their abilities and they might struggle to complete degrees they were never capable of achieving. Only the school itself would have gained from this.

No, it's not as excuse but also not a surprise.

It's also not great for those kids with over-inflated grades. It must be quite embarrassing at some level to know that you didn't and couldn't have earned the grades given to you.