A pass is a pass? GCSE

[Rumplestiltz]

At GCSE, a 4 is a pass. When employers/apprenticeships/further and higher education institutes ask for a pass in maths and English, it’s a 4.

So why the fuss about “strong” passes, which is a 5? Why does the Government organise its data on the proportion who get “strong” passes in English and Maths? Bridget Phillipson saying it’s a travesty that white, working class boys aren’t getting “strong” passes in English and Maths and their life chances are affected as a result. It kind of undermines those who work very hard to get to that pass line of a 4 (teachers and students) to be told it’s not good enough.

I am sure I will be told it’s very easy to get a 4 etc etc, but for some kids in these subjects, it isn’t.

So my AIBU is - a pass is a pass.

6 is a B in old money

4-5 is a C

Enables them to boast about their 'pass rate'.
However, once you start looking, the grades aren't quite as impressive as they are trying to have you believe.

That is just absolute rubbish

To be honest, they create the 4/5 split to massage the numbers. They want the 5 to be of a high enough academic standard to be worthwhile, but this means a whole chunk of kids simply can't achieve it. Nobody wants to make those kids attempt it over and over in vain, so where you end up, is having grade 4 as the "bare minimum" pass.

Why only "white boys"??

And some kids still struggle to get grade fours .

4-5 is a "C" if you believe government propaganda

If you look at percentages of the cohort achieving each grade and compare that to say, the 90s:

9 is A star
7/8 is A
6/7 is B
5/6 is C

They shifted it due to grade inflation. By creating more grades etc its harder to compare where boundaries fell in the past. Trust percentages.

And some kids still struggle to get grade fours .

Yes. There will always be some struggling to pass, it wouldn't be a qualification that had a great deal of value if everyone could pass it.

I think that statically they are the “group” that most under achieves.

At the end of the day, if a student does their best, whatever they achieve is valuable and should be celebrated. What constitutes a good result will vary from child to child depending on their base capabilities and other influencing factors.

In the real world, anything below a 5 denotes that a child isn't very capable/talented in that subject, and probably shouldn't aim for any field where proficiency at that subject is necessary.

A 4 shows a minimum standard of functional capability. For some people that's all that's needed and they can shine and be successful in other fields. Not everyone has to be good at everything.

It's a statistics thing that has been around for years.
Working class white boys are frequently the ones at the bottom of the pile when it comes to "good" results.

It doesn't matter what you think a grade four is a good enough pass so that kids don't have to repeatedly do maths and English
Not everyone does Alevels not all kids need the highest grades .

My son got six GCSEs at a level 4 including English and Maths. He applied and got an apprenticeship as an electrician.
He is now a qualified electrician working full time and earns way above average for his age group.
I don’t see his results as failing but if he’d wanted to do A levels or Uni his results probably wouldn’t have been good enough.

Colleges near me want a 4 to do A levels in subjects like physcology etc

English and Maths are the important subjects by far, I am happy with any focus on a strong pass for them (not that I like the term).

Hate the numbers. Just should have kept it as letters like A levels still are

Also in this boat

Of course a 4 is a pass. Some level 3 courses require five gcse passes grade 4-9 , including maths and english - as do some apprenticeships.
For those wanting to do 'traditional' A levels , a 4 wouldn't be high enough but neither would a 5 really. A level maths requires at least 7, sciences at least a 6 or a 7. It all depends what the individual teens next steps are. A levels aren't the be all and end all. I think it's rubbish to suggest that a 4 isn't enough. For many future plans, it is.

It’s not though if it’s not for example counted towards a minimum 5 GCSEs to do A levels when the old school when an old C was.

I’m don’t believe everyone needs to do A levels, far from it.

Alternatively consider that teaching quality is better now than years back. There is much more focus on teaching skills needed, not just accepting 'oh if you haven't understood it you must be thick'.

A 4 is a perfectly good standard for future life progression. I may actually claim it still includes unnecessary things, not needed in every day life. Should kids really be stopped from progression because they can't do algebra or write about how an author wrote for effect?

Yes, I certainly did last year! DS1 can say he has the highest grade in maths - A star, which he got on appeal/remark, scraped on the line.

DS2 did not get a 9, missed it by 4 marks. School said no point in asking for a remark, as the marking was correct. Fair enough. While an 8 is great, it’s not the highest mark. Yet DS2 was right at the top of the 8 band which is in effect the crossover from the old A and A star so he clearly did better than DS1.

I have no idea why the letter grades were changed. Seems an utterly pointless exercise, reflecting a habit in England at least of messing about with education to the point that parents and grandparents are totally mystified by grades and even year titles. I did not go to school when there was a Y9 etc. PIL have no idea what the new GCSE grades mean. Yet my friends in the US seem to have had roughly the same system of school years and grades for decades and everyone knows what they mean.

My family in Wales do a mix of English and Welsh GCSEs so their results sheets are very interesting - my cousin screenshotted me his daughter’s results to ask for help understanding it.

It might be a pass, but a lot of good sixth forms etc won’t accent anyone below a 6 to study the subject at A-Level.

DD1 school says all students have to have at least a 7 to continue onto A level. Ideally they’d have 8s. They won’t accept anyone with below an 8 in maths or the sciences doing it at A-level.

Not everyone is academically gifted. But if you wanted to be a doctor then a 4 won’t cut it.

I thought they changed it to numbers so they could add a Grade 10 if the numbers getting 9s got too high (like how it used to be A as the highest grade, then A star then 9 which is Astarstar...)

Nationally, only 46% get grade 5s in Maths and English.

Grade 1 is also a pass.
It's a low pass but is a pass

It literally isn't though. Sorry but it's not.