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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

A level grades

678 replies

DolphinFC · 10/08/2021 10:25

If feel that value of an A grade ar A level has been reduced dramatically. I feel truly sorry for those very bright, hard-working students who would've got an A grade no matter what. Their deserved A grade is now lost in a pile of undeserved A grades.

OP posts:
Bryonyshcmyony · 11/08/2021 17:20

@herecomesthsun

Because their kids need spoon feeding (in some cases) or their kids are "quirky" and will get special treatment? lots of reasons.

Nice grounds

Trying to encourage the kids to feel entitled in some way

Cachet of one of the big schools

Getting A grades handed to you in a pandemic is a new one

That's spiteful

I meant they are often produce better results at A level than state school. If my state school got the same results as the private school then dd would be there and I'd save my cash.

herecomesthsun · 11/08/2021 17:21

well spent it would seem this year

Bryonyshcmyony · 11/08/2021 17:22

@herecomesthsun

well spent it would seem this year
Yes very happy with both her grades and university thanks!
Bryonyshcmyony · 11/08/2021 17:25

Just to remind you that they applied to uni almost a year ago, so she applied and was offered a place with predicted grades (which she got) 🙂

Wornout12108 · 11/08/2021 17:35

I feel its worth pointing out that this year with all the disruption which has been terrible, the online learning was not ideal, many many other factors involved too, but my kid simply had no where to go for the last 17 months, part time job went as retail was closed for quite some time, have a clinically vulnerable child so no going out no breaking the rules, my kid studied more than he ever would have because there was not much else to do. There was precious little fun things, few social opportunities, there are only so many walks you could do before it became boring. I do believe in a normal year, social activities, part time job and so on would have distracted him from his studies and he would not have achieved the top grades he did. He has always been a bit lazy, but is smart, he applied himself as there was little else to do and I was working from home part time so could see how much work he was doing. So many of these kids do deserve their grades and have worked hard and probably the ones that are like my kid and distracted have done better than they would have as they had nothing much else to do. This year also in my childs year, approx twenty students dropped out around Christmas time and are repeating the year, I think this impacts the figures too, the ones who are too far behind have been weeded out far more than in a normal year.

ThatFlamingCandle · 11/08/2021 17:42

@Bryonyshcmyony

Before anyone says I'm bitter, I say my alevels in 2019 and got into a top university, top ten if I was showing off

Well done you. Why on earth are you judging others for also having a hard time? Having a baby is not exactly living in a global pandemic

They're not the only people who had a hard time. I had teen pregnancy and bereavement as I said and I didn't get an A by default. Not hard to get, is it? People are saying they had a hard year so they deserve it... we'll no.

This affects me. I'll be competing for jobs with people who got As in 2020/2021. Easy to say "who cares" or whatever when you're middle aged and settled in your career.

I'm a student, why can't I give my opinion? If the grades are well deserved, just ignore me, surely? What the critics and 'haters' say is the truth.

blameitonthecaffeine · 11/08/2021 17:46

I imagine arguing for special cases taken to a fine art, as in the article linked about special cases for more time in exams. I can entirely see how that would happen and how it could be argued for, with great compassion and case, on a case by case basis

The problem with extra time (to the best of my knowledge) is that a huge number of children could qualify for it but it is expensive to do so. You need an ed psych report to say your child needs the criteria for it. I think they cost £500. Not possible for a lot of families but easy for a lot of independent school parents. A lot of the children who get extra time are not necessarily children you would predict to benefit (ie they could be intelligent, high achieving children with a slow processing speed so extra time could be the difference between an A and a B.) As a PP said, if you can't do something, extra time won't help. It's those who are already capable but have a mild learning need who benefit most. In a large state school, those children may or may not be identified and their parents may or may not be willing or able to pay for the assessment. Private schools, especially non sective ones, actively encourage parents to get any child assesses who might possibly benefit.

I don't think that it's wrong that the children who qualify for time have it. But I do think it should be standard practice and free of charge to ensure that all children who would benefit get it. Not just wealthy ones.

I hadn't thought of extra time as another reason for the difference in As and A* between sectors but it definitely could have factored. It is often able children who qualify.

Boulshired · 11/08/2021 17:55

You don’t necessarily need to pay for a psych report for extra time. Both DS sixth form and DD college had in-house assessments.

Bryonyshcmyony · 11/08/2021 17:59

Dd1 was assessed at state 6th form and got extra time - for free.

Has never been suggested at the private school for the others

blameitonthecaffeine · 11/08/2021 18:11

Oh, ok. I stand corrected. Don't know why so many more private school children have extra time then.

Bryonyshcmyony · 11/08/2021 18:33

@blameitonthecaffeine

Oh, ok. I stand corrected. Don't know why so many more private school children have extra time then.
I remember actually asking if dd2 needed extra time (she's a terrible speller and struggled a bit in year 10) and you would have thought they'd have bitten my arm off if they were trying to get more kids to have extra time but they couldn't have been less interested 😂
herecomesthsun · 11/08/2021 18:51

You don't HAVE to pay for an Ed Psych report, However, you CAN pay for one.

Often with children's mental health, people look for different opinions.

Some private schools are really good at providing a nurturing environment for children with dyslexia / processing difficulties / ASD etc.

If assessments are possible from the local CAMHS then you don't have to pay for them, but there are long waiting lists, especially now.

Also Ed Psych assessments can be free. I'm sure you can also pay for them However, if your child needs therapy of some sort, then that often is available - privately.

Asking schools to take SEN issues into account is quite time consuming (some private schools would be very good at this, quite a number wouldn't).

TheMoth · 11/08/2021 18:55

I think lack of part time jobs definitely helped. Some of my kids end up doing up to 30 hours a week in work AND driving lessons AND a social life so 'I just didn't have time to do that essay for you'. It's not me for; it's too help you prepare for YOUR exam.
But this year they had nothing else to do. And doing shorter, frequent assessments meant they could focus on one thing at a time, rather than all the texts at once.

thing47 · 11/08/2021 19:08

IME private schools are more willing to predict A level grades at the top end of what they think their pupils might achieve. In normal times that doesn't really matter because the pupils still have to actually get those grades in the exams, but when those (sometimes optimistic) grades are the ones the pupils are actually awarded, it could account for the greater than usual discrepancy between private school grades and state school grades.

blameitonthecaffeine · 11/08/2021 19:13

But the pupils weren't given their predicted grades this year. They did huge numbers of assessments and internal exams.

herecomesthsun · 11/08/2021 19:16

Predicted grades came before university offers, so good ones are helpful at that point,

Pottedpalm · 11/08/2021 19:23

This reply has been deleted

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Pottedpalm · 11/08/2021 19:25

Does no one think that actually, state school teachers will have been as generous as the system allowed too? Surely they did?

dollybird · 11/08/2021 20:03

DD gets extra time, based on an assessment in year 10 requested by her English teacher at a large state school. Nothing to do with us.

dollybird · 11/08/2021 20:16

And going back to the bell curve, does that mean a certain percentage of pupils have to fail? And what if 30% got the same marks? Wouldn't top 10% one year perform differently to the top 10% another year (say if they did the same exams, which obviously wouldn't happen)?

ineedaholidaynow · 11/08/2021 20:26

@dollybird when I was at college in the 80s we were told 10% of pupils would fail, so I assume that was based on the bell curve.

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 11/08/2021 20:27

@blameitonthecaffeine

Oh, ok. I stand corrected. Don't know why so many more private school children have extra time then.
We had to pay for ds1 ed psych

He was at a 6th firm college….its such a shame we didn’t get it in school

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 11/08/2021 20:29

Dd got extra time and restbreaks through the school…

Phineyj · 11/08/2021 20:30

Private/independent schools vary hugely, just like state schools.

I can only speak for my bit of the country, but my impression is as a teacher and a parent that SEN support has been so hollowed out in much of the state sector, that parents with the money use private schools with a good reputation for SEN rather than watch their child flounder. Also, like attracts like. There is a small independent, mainstream secondary in a nearby town with nearly 2/3 diagnosed SEN. That suggests to me a significant lack of suitable state places in that area.

To correct some of the misinformation on this thread, it's true that the A/A percentage for independents has historically been much higher on average than the state sector. The gap has widened between 2020 and 2021, but the proportion of A/A has increased more on average in state than in independent this year (understandably, as if most of your grades were already at the top end there's not much more inflation possible).

All schools were subject to the same rules, and quality assurance. About 1 in 5 schools' evidence for TAGS was sampled. Only about 15% were told to alter grades or investigated further. Therefore the chance of an individual grade being altered was pretty low, but schools and teachers had no way of knowing that would be the case. We were told to make evidence packs for all candidates.

I will find the relevant report in a second and post it.