News today: Most GCSE equivalents axed from school league tables

[LittenTree]

here

Which is what happens when you try comparing apples with oranges in the first place... or create a society which only values academic achievement and treats all else as 'dross for the stupid'.

hocus
it starts with a step change in attitude at some schools that they will get penalised if all the kids do not come out with at least English, Maths and Single Science.
Then the staff and pastoral and truant staff will put effort into getting kids to do the classes they need to do to eat later in life, not just the ones they fancy doing.

I am lucky - my kids school does not seem to give up on kids, even the two in the tutor group whose parents appear to have given up on them. But for schools without the high fliers (ie with selectives in their areas) it must be chuffing hard.

Talkin - define "come out with..."
Do you mean A-C grades at GCSE? Hate to break it to you, but there are kids who are not capable* of that and never will be.

Schools will still be able to count 2 "non GCSE" qualifications, which might (and in some cases will) include BTEC Science for those who will struggle with GCSE.

You seem to equate vocational qualifications with schools giving up on kids. I resent that.

Evil
I am fully aware that there are kids out there who are neurolgically incapable of passing English and Maths at GCSE. My childrens' school is a true comp with a splendidly mixed catchment.
However I am also fully aware of the fact (from being the accountant to a gang of &%&%*&% self employed builders) that there are large numbers of students who frankly cannot be arsed and in the last 20 years got away with getting decent jobs while being illiterate.
Most of them DEEPLY regret their decisions when they were young but one particular chap has found it almost impossible to learn to read in his 30s (while earning over £40k and having an amazing memory as he can recite safety manuals that he has learned by rote but never read)

If vocational qualifications can motivate kids to not write off the whole school experience they are absolutely valid - but reading, writing and adding up HAVE to come first. Not just my view but also the view of taxpaying employers the world over.

Talkin - I don't disagree with you.

I am interested in what you mean, though by "it starts with a step change in attitude at some schools that they will get penalised if all the kids do not come out with at least English, Maths and Single Science."
What do you mean by "come out with"?
How does that get measured? Does it have to be A*-C at GCSE?

Evil
No, not A* to C : not reasonable in some cases
but at least graded

• to prove that the school actually entered them rather than giving up on them at the end of the spring term

which I am sure you know all too well is the easy way to inflate percentages

I bet you'd be a bit gutted if half your students were not put in for the final cut to massage the school's figures .....
(which is of course what private schools do, but that is ANOTHER can of worms)

I've honestly never worked in a school where that has happened. And all the schools i have worked in have been comprehensives taking the broadest possible intake. I don't recognise these schools you describe here at all. If it happens at all in th way you are describing then its rare.

Migrating - I base my opinions both as an employer,
and as somebody whose DH goes to (and regales me afterwards about) well over 100 schools a year.
You may not have deen it but by golly OFSTED have

Custard is quite right
I am going into year 9 choices with the school begging DD to do everything.
The choices book makes is very clear that certain doors are slammed shut to lower ability kids

Eviltwin Correct me if I am wrong, but I genuinely want to know, but don't traditional (i.e., Russell Group) universities look at GCSEs rather than BTECs?

According to UCAS, no. But in reality, yes. Russell Group universities can make their own decisions because they're so popular. That said, one of my VI form girls got into an RG last year with a combination of A Levels and Level 3 BTEC, so it's not a hard and fast rule. This year I have had students accepted at universities with level 2 BTECs in Science, Health and Social Care and Performing Arts - not necessarily RG universities, of course. But then, not everyone WANTS to go to an RG, and not everyone is capable. A good school would advise students appropriately, with their futures in mind.

then I must have been excessively good at picking good schools with decent, hard working and genuine staff in them. And for that i am very fortunate indeed.

Migrating- I've never worked in a school where students have been withdrawn from exams in order to inflate the grades, thankfully. I would find that very difficult to go along with. I do hope that students in my current school feel they receive the right advice about their future choices. We're in a disadvantaged rural area and many don't get support from home where it comes to their education.

that's exactly my experience too.

There was a report on Newsnight the other week that named Harris academies as a group of schools who regularly 'informally exclude' challenging children (including SEN children) and shunt some kids off to 'vocational training centres' at 14 so they don't actually get entered for any GCSEs.

" in the last 20 years got away with getting decent jobs while being illiterate"

If they can make a decent living at it then I presume that they do a decent job of the building work they do. In which case does it really matter if they are not particularly literate? If the work they did wasn't good then surely they wouldn't 'get away with it' for so long.

Juule
they got away with it because the economy was in a bubble and there was not much competition
now the economy is in recession
the poles are here
and they are losing their jobs