Unfair contextualisation for uni entry

[helparoundthehouse]

I'm absolutely supportive of the efforts to widen access e.g. considering applicants being the first in the family to university, receipt of free school meals, and CERTAIN contextualisation of attainment.

BUT, I don't agree with the contextualisation where a student is judged against the cohort & their school's GCSE/A-level results when that school is selective.

E.g. 'strong but not as strong as peers' applicant, who attended a highly selective school at GCSE, might have a contextualised GCSE of zero or even below/minus even if they have all 8s/9s!

I get that highly selective schools MAY provide superior teaching but, frankly, in a lot of cases - whether grammar or indie - the results are more likely a result of the school being selective in the first place.

So AIBU to think that this type of contextualisation is not helpful and, in fact, rather unfair.

@100PercentFaithful
If the comp is in an area with no grammars they they will be taking children of all academic abilities. So the top sets at these are just as capable of doing well.
Unlike comps in areas with grammars. The grammars siphon off a large number at the top. So the comps have a lower number of top set pupils

So not all comps are equal but that doesn’t mean there are kids at them that aren’t just as capable at kids at selective grammar schools. Of course to live in a non grammar area is more beneficial to the comp kids and schools diversity as a whole.

( Indis of course are different as children benefit from smaller class sizes )

i don’t necessarily disagree that point but aside from Kent and maybe a couple of other areas there are very few areas where there are lots of grammers in the same area. I live in London and there are very few grammars and so the effect is very minimal on the other children

Tbh it’s irrelevant.
Universities have a blanket ban on offering contextual offers to the privately educated.
This isn’t just for A levels either it also includes at Gcse level too as parents were trying to game the system by moving kids out after their GCSEs.

The only way one would get a contextual and be at an Indi is in extreme circumstances. Eg. Both parents dieing in a students final Alevel year

Yep. I live in Kent so you can see why I see this all the time.
We used to live in Medway…same terrible system
My nephew is in Bucks…another area

London might not have the Grammars but they do have some highly selective schools. My friend in Barnets kids suffered at the hands of those

@Kandalama my next question was the moving from private to state 6th form and if that worked. You answered that though!

Yeh
Thats been tried and they’ve wised up 🥴.

My kids were at private so I’m not an Indi hater btw.

Yep. As per friends of ours, DC at private school.

Genuinely curious question - what would a child of two lawyers who got all 9s and 4A* need to do to get onto a university course of their choosing? And they were not tutored?
What more should those children have done, as they cannot get higher grades? Their parents are high achievers and we need them in this country for their tax if nothing else.

Close friends ( a couple with one in finance and the other a SAHP) send their DC to the local comp but the combination of the high income plus a SAHP means their children are able to have heavy parental involvement and support with both academic and extracurricular work.
They have multiple holidays per year including skiing.
They are likely to received contextualised offers.

Sorry if this has been asked upthread.

They are likely to received contextualised offers.

On what basis? Home postcode being in an IMD quintile 1 or 2 / POLAR4 quintile 1 area?

Being eligible for a contextual offer doesn’t guarantee that you’ll receive an offer, particularly for heavily oversubscribed courses at popular universities.

Its not only about grades. You must show a genuine interest in the subject and write an amazing personal statement showing that you do by eg reflecting on the books you read etc. as a child of two lawyers, universities may expect some work experience as it seems like it is available to her. Also it increasingly seems like universities want students to do well on the admissions test.

However
There are several categories to pass through
Whilst dc might get a point for living in Quintile area 1 or 2 they would still lose the chance because they are at Private School.

They have a contextualised offer. The mother has told me.

So they must have something else.
Just living in a certain area isn’t enough. Especially as they are at Private. ( there’s sites online you can check )

What are they claiming I wonder…..relatives dying? Is the kid a carer? ( ie do parents have a disability, you can get carers allowance if you live with someone with PIP ( my cousins daughter got contextual for being a carer, even though she does nothing and the school just told them to apply anyway )

There must be more to it

They have a contextualised offer. The mother has told me.

For which university?

Nothing else that I know of, two professional parents, both working. Forces veteran?

They had no idea what it meant when the offer came - they had to look it up 😂

Russell group. One of which had been mentioned up thread.

If it’s for Bristol then it will be because the state school appears on the Bristol list of ‘underperforming’ schools - which frequently has schools / colleges that you wouldn’t expect to be on there.

I thought the Ofsted rating had a significant bearing on the widening participation policy?
I work in a school that Ofsted has rated inadequate (just before the one word judgements stopped).
And my word, it is inadequate. A young person at our place who manages decent A level grades has worked soooooo much harder than their peers at adequate schools. Many of them manage A-C without even having a regular teacher for that subject, or only having a couple of hours a week due to timetabling issues.
It doesn’t matter what the home income is like - that is a tough old gig. Even if parents can afford tutoring, that’s only an hour per week. JCQ recommends at least FIVE hours per week for A level. A tutor isn’t going to cover all that ground, no chance.
The majority of our students have great contextualised offers. They deserve them.

If you're replying to my comment, the child is at an independent school. But I've double checked and the school isn't on the list.

At no point did I say that you have a mild disability that doesn’t affect you much or call you ableist. You have put words in my mouth and then called them ignorant! I am unsure of what you want from this thread, I simply said that just because some do not need it, does not mean others don’t benefit from it.
We will have to agree to disagree on this.

@Saturdayblues1 I was making a more general comment on the replies I’d had, sorry about that!

What Uni is this. ???

A friend of my sons got contextual and was at Private but both his parents died in his A level exam year! That’s seems 100% right.

your Example doesn’t

More than one Russell group.

As i said, they weren't expecting it 🤷‍♀️

It’s all going a bit pear shaped!

But then I recall Warwick giving my son a really low offer for his course. It seems even though it was Warwick the course wasn’t a good one in the particular field. Just wondering

Although if it’s several Unis it’s very weird. Hopefully dc won’t struggle when they move on.

Ah, I got confused with @ceaseanddesisttobailiffs saying their friends with DC at a comp was likely to get contextual offers (because I didn’t use the quote function).

Strange that your friend’s DC at private is getting contextual offers - unless the school’s reference has flagged something maybe?