EPQ opportunities state and private schools?

[Wednesday77]

My kids go to a good state school and about to go into sixth form . Apparently only 15 students per year are allowed by the school to do an EPQ ( there are 200 pupils per year in the 6th form) .
A friend of mine has her children in private school and it is compulsory for all the sixth form students there to do an EPQ.
Got me wondering what the situation is at other schools ... is there an inequality issue here or is it just these two schools ?
Interested to know your experiences ...

You're in the wrong place OP, you might want to try asking this on one of the Education boards rather than in AIBU.

My ds is at a state 6th form college and as far as I know anyone who would like to do an EPQ who has the ability is allowed to do one. So no limits other than academic ability and no compulsion.

Our state school is open to anyone who is able enough and wants to. Maybe your school can't staff more than that many? It's a shame...

DSs were at private school and anyone who wanted to do one could do so.

State 6th form in a non leafy town here. If you are doing A levels, you are allowed to do an EPQ.

EPQs are an opportunity for the brightest students who are easily managing their a- level workload to stretch themselves and demonstrate their abilities beyond simply passing exams.

I would expect a hyper-selective academic private school to only contain pupils who can achieve this.

I would expect a non- selective state school to only contain about 5-8% of pupils who actually have that capacity. there might well be a similar number of borderline pupils who are interested in the variety of the EPQ but whose efforts would be better spent on maximising their A-Level grades.

the school will be judged and ranked according to the cohort's a-level results. it is very sensible for the school to limit who can do the EPQ to prevent their overall reputation getting damaged if a borderline student spends efforts on an EPQ at the expense of dropping from A/A* standard to B grade in their a-levels.

I work in a non selective private. All 6th formers are offered the option. About 20% take it up and about 10% actually complete them. I wouldn't go looking at this as any sort of discrimination issue, all schools, state and private vary widely in what they offer. Sometimes it's as simple as having one member of staff with a particular skill.

State maintained school with 6th form here. Any pupil is allowed to do EPQ. They need to keep to the scheduled deadlines etc to be entered, but we positively encourage all students to do it, of all abilities (well- we only offer A levels, so all a certain ability already, but some would have a D target, some an A). It's always beneficial to broaden their skills and interests.

DD is at private 6th form
All are given the option of doing it, most of them are.
Only 25 in the year group.

DC are at a selective independent. They all do it. And they all do HPQ in Year 10.

State comprehensive - anyone has the chance to do it.