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...

Agree with everyone else that the fact it happens is hardly news to anyone who knows about schools with top A-level results. One school near is is renowned for it.

I also agree with what Dumbledore said......
Interesting how families who are happy with selection when their children are among the chosen ones suddenly change their tune when their children are selected out......

orlantinao no, as my post says those struggling to get three E grades at AS or by the end of Yr 12.
B and C grades are good at A level and as most students go up about a grade between Yr 12 and 13 I would recommend them continuing the A - level path.
It's not that students who fail Yr 12 or scrape E and D grades won't pass Yr 13. It's more of a case what with? If they're managing a profile of DDD or EED at A-level at best (of it is honeslt three U grades what's the point?!) their life choices will be very limited, if they cut their losses at the end of Yr 12 and move to a course they are more likely to thrive on, e.g. They've shown affinity for coursework, or more written based subject than science, then they would do better starting again.
As I say, what's a year in the grand scheme of things if it means you can do more and be happier later on.

It happens. Hundreds of years ago when I was a pupil at a very high achieving Grammar School - I wasn't allowed to take Geography O'Level. And just last year after dreadful Science ISA's DC's school scrapped the whole of Year 10 Science and put them all in for IGCSE Science instead which isn't included in league tables.

I don't believe in "academic vs not" full stop. Just different people have different strengths - not rocket science there!
Doing well at Btecs or a diploma or A-levels is not easy. It means a huge amount of effort and intelligence - there are just lots of varieties of intelligence. We've complained for years that schools are "one size fits all", now when school's dare suggest this system may not work and a different path might be better we get shot down for only caring about grades! We can't win...

now when school's dare suggest this system may not work and a different path might be better we get shot down for only caring about grades

I agree - but it seems that this school were getting rid of pupils who weren't going to get As or Bs. That seems very harsh.

That's very different to no, as my post says those struggling to get three E grades at AS or by the end of Yr 12

Yes, i think it is fair enough if a student is on 3 Es at A level.
I think it is totally wrong, unfair and unreasonable if they are not on 3 Bs. St Olaves are certainly not the only ones, queen ethelburgas also do not allow progression to year 13 if not on a B, and they do not make that explicit to parents at the start of the dcs school career.
Makes you wonder how many of the so called top schools are massaging their figures in this way 😰

Selective independents all do it. For instance Kings College, Wimbledon (where they get about 96% A*-A at GCSE) has already only selected boys easily capable of those grades at 11 plus. Now it's new move to be co-ed at A-level is simply a means of cherry-picking girls who will clearly get the top A-level results which the school markets itself as achieving. I doubt a boy getting Bs or Cs at GCSE would be allowed to continue on to A-level - he would be easily replaceable. All the super-selectives (in London at least) have always done this for the simple reason that they can.

From another article in the Guardian

About 16 pupils at St Olave’s grammar school in Orpington, in the London borough of Bromley, were told their places for year 13 – the last year of school – had been withdrawn after they failed to get the required three Bs.

3 Bs are not amazing but perfectly decent I think? The school select top students at GCSEs which i think is fine. But kicking young people out with minimal notice in the middle of their A level course is simply not right.

There's an independent school in our region who have 2 secondary schools on one campus with fractionally different names.
The school then separates the year group at the end of y9.
The 'academic' kids go through one pathway at one 'establishment' and their exams under the name of that more prestigiois and publicised place and any students who may suit the 'more vocational pathways' read would stop our results looking excellent go through the 2nd school.
So the school always comes really high in league tables but it's because they separate the cohort into 2 technically different schools on the same site. If you combined the results together then it's no different to a good state school in the region.

Absolutely agree orlantina as I also said in my original post . I disagree with what this school is doing. It's morally wrong if nothing else!

I was more getting frustrated at the follow up posts lambasting various schools for unfairly kicking students out to boost grades. I don't think that's fair, as I don't believe the majorities of academies or school sixth forms do this. We are human too and genuinely have our students best interests at heart.
I'm not for a moment saying schools know everything or that they shouldn't be challenged, but they are experienced places who have been doing this for a long time. Our advice needs to be listened to. You don't see a doctor and completely ignore everything they have to say (mostly!), or a lawyer, or your dentist. School's are professionals too. We don't have it in for students; we care about them quite a lot.

On my phone and have had a few . Please ignore all spelling and grammar errors!

School's are professionals too. We don't have it in for students; we care about them quite a lot

I know - I work in primary. I can just imagine the uproar if primary schools kicked out children in Y6 who weren't going to get 4s..Or whatever grade we're using now...

Mind you, I bet there are some stories people have about primary schools.

There's an independent school in our region who have 2 secondary schools on one campus with fractionally different names

Are they keen on local radio ads - with 'out of this world facilities?"

I don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet but there's. Difference between not allowing a student with a B to continue to A-level and suggesting that a student with EUU should seek another course (which is the position that I'm currently in).
At the moment I'm hammering out class lists for A- level English with the head of sixth form. We've had a few apply with only a 4 in both Englishes. Knowing the students it is the wrong course for them and they would most likely end up with a U really an E after two years s study (and a lot of heart ache). Sometimes the best thing is to steer them in another direction.

However, what that grammar is doing pretty standard for grammar school. Not that it is right. Grammar is supposed to be meritocracy. They will only want the best student in for Yr13. If the student hasn't gotten an A in Yr12 then it is vanishingly unlikely that they will in the much harder A-level exam. I suspect this comes down to not only league tables but also the kinds of university's these students are being encouraged to apply for, who will want all or mostly A grades.

It isn't right but it's the system that you get when school funding, salaries and reputations are founded on student results and league tables.

Sorry for all of the errors

I'm typing too fast with predictive text on glares at phone

DS1 new sixth form have changed the removal of places but have increased the requirements to join so have probably achieved the same result but now look like the good guys.

I can imagine a few grammar schools steer primary children you describe in an alternative direction orlantina

I don't mean to sound argumentative, but probably do , but there is a world of difference in options available to a Year 6 and a Year 12. The Year 6 has to go and do SATs at another school, the Year 12 has apprenticeships, A-levels, BTECs, diplomas, traineeships etc.

nannyoggs my posts are singing from your hymn sheet (with the same number of errors )

The govt have cottoned onto this though- this is why the performance tables for 16-18 now show retention rate between Y12 and Y13. Schools that make pupils leave after Y12 will have poor retention rates.

I think indies go many steps farther.

1. Try academic testing at prep entry &/or then at key points - yr3/yr8
2. If the prep is a feeder to the academic senior, then the kids will be tested for entry yr9, usually in yr6. Again, some won't make it & these are the kids already in the prep school.
3. For the kids joining the senior, testing begins in yr6. Usually pre-test (1st round throw out) followed by second round testing and interviews. The lucky few will be chosen.

Many rounds of testing to get into the senior school. Then the clean up for A-Levels.

No wonder some schools get amazing results. It really is Survivor Bias. No wonder kids suffer with anxiety.

& god help you if your kid has SEN (like DS).

Dd school does this. Also a grammar lol
I removed her with her wedge of A* A and B and sent her to a much more inclusive grammar for 6th form

Loads of her cohorts got booted at yr 12 and had to go to college or elsewhere and do AS again and are now 'a year behind'

Loads of schools do this, or a variation of it. Not just selective though they are the worst offenders.

DS knows of kids who were not invited to stay on at St Olives and other local grammars because their GCSES grades were below par ie they didn't get mostly A/A*s. It's also common to ditch those who don't do well enough at end of y12. Or get them not to sit Y12 exams and repeat the year (I know a few who have done this).

Even in DS non selective school, he wasn't allowed to continue a subject in y13 because he got a D at end of y12. Even though he'd been been predicted B/C, narrowly missed a C, etc. He ended up only doing 2 A2s which I am still annoyed at the school about, but for them of course it reduced the chance of students getting a D at A2.

I'm only surprised people are surprised that this goes on. It's a shame because when I did A levels in 1990, if students dropped out it was entirely their choice. Some did, some kept on even though they were never going to get top grades . In one of my subjects out of 5 of us the grades were A, A, B, E and U. The girl who got the U resat and I think got a D the next year. But at least those were all genuine results and didn't flatter to deceive.

orlantina
I think so. I think it's already been referred to on here as well.

The 'academic' school is what they publicise and trade off but it would be interesting to hear how parents feel paying very high fees for years only to be told at 14 'we're sorry your child is not good enough to go through our prestigious school where we groom them for top universities. They'll need to go to our less academic school which we don't talk about'

I always think people who choose those kinds of places love selection when they think their child is somehow unique, gifted or special. Can't imagine they like it when their child falls the wrong side of the divide.

Olaves is well known for actions like this, a few years ago a year 12 pupils father sadly passed away just before his AS exams, unsurprisingly he didn't do well and was told he couldn't continue into year 13.

St Olaves.

Bloody autocorrect!