What a screwup at NLCS

This. Plenty of private schools were extremely careful with their TAGs and didn't overinflate at all

"Many of whom will have deserved those marks..." But MOST won't have deserved them, 56% of them in fact if not more. How can every physics student be awarded an A star when in previous years there had been a spread of marks from A star to E?

Remember only 17% of predicted A level grades for UCAS applications are accurate, 5% are under estimated and around 78% over estimated.

Feel sorry for all of the teachers pressured into it - all of the A grade pupils who were actual A grades. Same with the GCSE results as well - all of them 99.4% a level 8/9 and 95% of them a 9?

Plenty of private schools didn’t inflate their grades. Having parents who pay is no excuse.

Is anyone genuinely surprised by this?

The school has delivered what it's paying customers wanted.

It's just an additional rung of the ladder of privilege these kids are on.

DS is at a grammar- their results actually went up in 22. This cheating is unfair on all the kids at schools who marked fairly, and unfair on the NLCS girls whose grades will now forever be questioned, many of whom will have deserved their marks. It’s appalling. We had considered this school for DD and I’m so glad we didn’t send her.

It will blow over but not for a while, I think.

I agree. This is clearly not something to just blow over and be ignored. You do not change your school head in the middle of an academic year for no reason. Note, Vicky is finishing out the school year at SHHS, she's not just leaving them mid-year. Clearly, there's many things going on here. The Oxbridge percentage has been falling, more Junior School kids are going elsewhere, and then this exam scandal. Is NLCS still a good school, of course, but this will take years to fix and restore it to its former glory. Vicky is very capable but even she will take some years to repair the school's reputation. Personally, I really hope that the school can be repaired.

I suspect Elij00 is taking the mickey. But she is probably right - NLCS is extremely oversubscribed. Even if their applications fall by 20%, their intake won’t change.

NLCS will be fine. They are still after all one of the Best schools in the Land. People tend to underestimate the amount of leeway we as parents give the best schools in the Land be it independent or state. This little scandal might affect an also ran independent school not a big name like NLCS.

I bloody hope they get thoroughly investigated and appropriately sanctioned, so unfair on the thousands of kids whose teachers assessed them fairly and reasonably.

It’s a real shame for all the pupils who got their A level results. Plenty of them will have deserved their high grades but will be viewed with suspicion as they got them in 2021.

@LongFlamingo SHHS also inflated the grades substantially during the covid year (top 10 on the list?) so not sure Ms Bingham can help in this context 🤔

Yes, dd's school did much better in 2022 than the covid years because they rigourously assessed them throughout. Yet still dd's GCSE grades will be seen as 'covid' grades outside of this context.

Thank goodness Vicky Bingham is going there. It is exactly what the school needs to quickly get back on track. She is outstanding.

So sad to see, the school used to have such an outstanding reputation. Increasingly, junior school students go elsewhere. Let's just hope that in a few years Vicky can restore the school to its once former glory, but it won't be easy.

NLCS was the worst of the grade inflation scandal and deserves the scrutiny. At least the head took responsibility and stepped down (or pushed out) .

Let's not forget there are hundreds schools (both state and private) involved. Not being the top inflation school does NOT mean these schools have better integrity...

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/private-schools-gamed-covid-rules-to-give-their-pupils-more-top-a-levels-6z0z6w9r5

Reading this made me so angry. My DD2 did A levels in 2021 in our local state school. She and her peers sat exams under full exam conditions. Grade range no different from 2019. And meanwhile this corrupt school pushes its already privileged pupils even higher up the ladder at the expense of others.

Fortunately she did get the grades she deserved and got into her first place uni, but honestly any schools found to have acted like this need to be in massive trouble.

From the other thread it seems she didn't resign she was asked to leave by the governors

Just looked at the grade inflation from 2019 to 2021... shocking!! How did they think they could get away with it? So the E grade physics student gets an A star just because teachers can set the grades. This is malpractice at its worst.

www.nlcs.org.uk/userfiles/nlcsmvc/pdfs/Senior%20School/Exams/2021%20Results%20for%20marketing%20and%20evaluation1.pdf

www.nlcs.org.uk/userfiles/nlcsmvc/pdfs/EXAM%20RESULTS%202019%20-%20Jan%202020.pdf

Well, a modicum of integrity on someone's part, given the whistleblowing...