to think this is a great way of getting top A-Level success rates - I can't believe other schools haven't cottoned on

[orlantina]

Simply don't let the pupils in Y12 who aren't going to get As not do year 13.

Then you are looking good for a high success rate and can market yourself as a great school.

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/aug/29/grammar-school-unlawfully-threw-out-students-who-failed-to-get-top-grades

Unbelievable the school did this...

My dd's 6th Form went out of it's way to let all pupils (and parents) know, at the end of Yr12, that, whatever results day brought in terms of AS results, they were expecting to see everyone back in September. So there's one BitOutofPractice. Where I live there is one school that has a reputation for doing this - only one, and I'm in a big City so there are a lot of schools.

'Shame, it means it will not get tested in court'
Not really a shame, schools and LAs simply don't have the budget for this.

'because the teachers will, I trust, pull their fingers out in order to keep standards up.'
Yeah right, because this is all on the teachers.............

Also, just looking at a thing at drop-out rates at university. Maybe if we allowed our kids to fail earlier............

wrt drop out rate at university and 'fail early'
i might not have listened but I think my teachers ought to have got across to us
a) that there would be a cull - my chemistry course had a 30% cull at the end of yr1 - it was a shock and I lost a lot of friends - some of whom might have played less if they knew
b) the dramatic shift in learning responsibility - I wasted a lot of time expecting to be taught
c) that you pull the stops out for finals
i was / am a cruiser by default and c) is one I might have done something about

but fail early feels wrong - provide them with understanding and knowledge of what to expect - people change so much between gcse and finals - A pupils drop out too and you can't map A to first or even 2.1

'Shame, it means it will not get tested in court'
Not really a shame, schools and LAs simply don't have the budget for this.

Then schools at least shouldn't take cold-blooded decisions to operate blatantly unlawful policies. So far as the LA is concerned, if they have any sense they'll take the line that they agree with the pupil and thus minimise their costs.

because the teachers will, I trust, pull their fingers out in order to keep standards up.
Yeah right, because this is all on the teachers.............

No-one suggests that this decision is all down to the teachers. However, to an extent they've had a relatively easy ride in A2 by having only the brightest pupils cherry-picked for them - they haven't had to deal with the C graders and think about why it is that grammar school pupils are achieving at that level or put in the effort to pull them up. And of course they have an equal duty to all their pupils, not just the brightest ones.

I can't believe some posters suggesting a C or D grade is a decent or good grade!

D is definitely "blowing it".

C is somebody who probably picked the wrong subject and/or didn't try hard enough.

B is someone who with more effort could have got and A.

A is good.

A* is very good.

That's my view, anyway.

At my DD's school (comprehensive), the boundary was two at less than an E out of the 4 A-levels. A lot of kids transferred in at the end of the first year from schools that had a higher boundary.

smitff

I dint think many people have said D is a good grade...

I cant believe some of the stuff youve said

All of us are different and all that

Smitff LOL!!

Wow Smitff

Perhaps we'll give you the benefit of the doubt and just think you have a very small circle of people you know, and therefore just ignorant rather than are being deliberately rude.

Smitff someone with a GCSE point scores of 40 getting Cs and Ds is good. How about someone undergoing chemo whilst doing their A levels getting Bs? Ok with you?
How about you worry about your own children and we'll worry about ours?

But Ceto, schools and LAs are completely beholden to whatever political ideology has hold. Currently it is utterly results driven- teachers, schools and LAs are punished if they don't deliver and here are the results.
We have to look beyond teachers and schools to see why this is happening.

A and AS levels are not just about ability.. they're about work ethic and attitude.

I think having a (realistic) grade boundary for AS is a valuable asset / stick. (Barring all unforeseen tragedies) if you achieved the right results to get onto your subject courses in 6th form but can't pull your finger out to get at least 3 Ds, then responsibility and consequences lie with you (the student) ..

Which I said to my DS when he was an absolute arse years ago

Any state school that has not updated its policies by the start of term could be in for an exciting term.
I suspect lots of academies will be having emergency Governors meetings in September.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
It is not lawful to exclude on academic progress alone.

I agree, it will make for interesting times.

Ta1k- this may not affect academies. They don't have to be as accountable as LA schools. But yes, there may be sudden meetings at LA schools.

Mairead
It applies to all state schools - exclusions are under the DfE Code
only private schools can exclude as they please

Also I suspect the Catholic Church will not like this sort of publicity about one of its VA schools

sudden meetings which won't be about making things right, it will be about how to work around the law but still achieve what they want to achieve (only top grades being associated with their name).

out2
possibly, but as lots and lots of parents now realise that their children have been illegally excluded from school
and that the school and the LEA have a legal duty to find them another school place
www.gov.uk/school-discipline-exclusions/challenging-exclusion
its going to be pretty tricky for the schools to keep playing the same games

My dcs GS does the end of year weed out for those not getting DDD but that isn't to do with looking good on the league tables, it is all about what is best for the kid. They can only get 3 yrs FE funding, so if they are going to flunk a levels then they need to move and start s different course after y12.
ATM the school is quite relaxed about their own y11 s who missed the entry criteria have a bash at sixth form there, but if the opportunity to weed out after y12 disappears, they will have to be more ruthless

The 6th form ds1 went to does have a minimum but i know of at least 5 children that were allowed to stay after dreadful results

And thats in my small circle of friends whose children go there so there must be more

Two children retook a year and two children continued with reduced A levels and ds1 continued with all of his

Ds1 did well , not in the opinion of some on this thread , and one child who retook a year did even better

Mairead: academies are subject to the same law on exclusion as state maintained schools are.

The biggest issue for me is that these schools are misrepresenting their teaching abilities. There's a world of difference between a high success rate and cherry picking.