Will eight grade 9s be needed for Tiffin Boys Sixth Form entry?

The high number of 9s in 8 qualifying subjects are needed to get in for STEM subjects at Tiffin Boys because those are the subjects most oversubscribed by internal students. There are few places for externals, so they are more competitive to get onto.

Humanities subjects don't generally need such high grades.

But be careful of that graphic - it only counts people who got a clean sweep of 9s. My DD’s comprehensive generally has its two upper sets doing between 10 and 12 GCSE’s, and that graphic would not count the kids getting nine 9s and then a couple of 8s. It’s not that common but certainly more common than your graphic suggests!

Hampton has odd results in a way - maybe because lots leave after GCSEs. 84% are 8 or 9 grade at GCSE but 72% A star/A at A level. So quite a few of the top grades at GCSEs are getting a B at A level? Different years of course but could be interesting.

@3WildOnes That’s possibly the case but not every school takes igcses for every subject. Some would say they are easier to get a high grade in too.

I don't think these stats include IGCSEs. Most of the private schools local to Tiffin do a mixs of GCSEs and IGCSEs. Hampton boys had 65 pupils who achieved nine or more grade 9s.

Drama is listed as an accepted GCSE on their admissions document.

@TheCoolTiger That’s odd. My DD1 did drama GCSE and it’s brilliant for confidence and expression. Now a barrister. Her friend did drama A level - read English at Cambridge. As one of, say 10, GCSEs it’s a very good “art” choice. Teaches a lot of skills - confidence, collaborative working, performing and public speaking and dependability and showing up! All excellent skills!

Quite a lot easier for girls to get in! They have double the chance.

And yes there is a defined list of subjects that are accepted - drama doesn’t count either

It’s not who gets the most 9s. Tiffin offers on the basis of a student’s best 8 GCSE grades, but those 8 must be from a specific list of subjects - Business Studies doesn’t count, for example, and neither does Further Maths. The admissions policy is on the website. There’s 80 places for girls and 40 for boys and so it’s a bit easier for girls to get in.

Ah, okay thanks. My DS went a few years back.

There aren’t any ‘offers’ anymore. It’s done by highest results on results day.

Our private school is very similar.

My DD, who wants to do STEM subjects was not offered a place at the competitive grammar - her predictions were 7-9 although she will probably achieve 8-9 but certainly not all 9.

Her more academic peers have had offers and less academic peers wanting to study English and humanities have had offers.

ETA - we are north London.

Our school has allowed this.

Thing is everyone above is talking about the previous system where Tiffin gave out conditional offers earlier in the year.

This is the first year of the more brutal new system whereby you input your highest 8 grades achieved on results day. So it’s literally who gets the most 9s. For STEM at least. I know with less popular subjects you can get in with slightly lower grades

Surely it depends on the offer? DS was offered 64 points from top 8 exams I.e. average 8’s. DS had one 7 but 5 nines which offset the 7.

So around 1300 dc get all 9s in the whole country - how many apply to Tiffin? I guess all the 9s must be in London and a large number within commuting range to this school. Although isn’t Tiffin boys separate from the girls?

DS wants to do economic, politics and either maths, a language or history.

How many 9s would he need for that?

The majority of external students to do stem at tiffin get straight 9s. Grades are slightly lower for languages and other subjects they need to ‘fill’. The majority of external entrants are girls as they generally out perform external boys.

@6thformoptions But in the context of the results for GCSEs, 8 grade 9s is pretty unusual. So top set or not, not many get that in 8, 9 or 10 subjects and the op seemed to think 8 grade 9s would be required. From the stats, this seems too high.

Going by predicted grades - that is what set 1 expects. It is a high performing school, which is why people pay for it, which is why I mention it as that will be part of the grammar 6th form competition for the next few years at least.

@6thformoptions How do you know they are grade 8s? They have not got the results yet? The results I’ve posted show 9 or 10 GCSEs all at grade 9 are rare.

Appx 1/4 of our private school GCSE cohort are openly applying for grammar spaces for A Levels (London area) and most from set 1, so doing at least 9 GCSEs at grade 8 or above. Dd is set 2 with 11 GCSEs 6+ but we won't be heading to London for A' Levels but applyibg to Grammar elsewhere. Only 5 pupils left straight after the VAT announcement so having about 40 pupils now choosing to leave and apply for Grammars shows to me their parents have eeked out as far as they can to keep them stable for GCSEs. I know some in Y10 doing the same as it hit on the cusp of them starting to chose subjects and kids had just settled into friendships groups. I am confident our school won't be the only private with figures like this.

This was the grade 9 stats for 2024. Slightly flawed on that it’s all subjects taken but the numbers are not huge. They can ask….

we have kids in two different selective london day schools and neither give that option.

My son joined Tiffin last Sept. One of his friends got in to study maths, FM, Physics and Chemistry with 7 x 9. There are a few students with 6 x 9 who are not doing STEM subjects. Given that Tiffin gets 35% 9s at GCSE - so 3.5 per student on