AS grades predicting A level grades

[LondonMilly]

My daughter did brilliantly to get 4 As at AS. However her school has just told her they will predict A at A level not A which is what she was hoping for. Apparently they predicted A last year for quite a few pupils who didn't achieve them. My daughter is upset and wants me to talk to the school - does anyone know more about how they make these decisions?
thanks

Jabbed professional judgement same one that predicts four grades lower, and then says "we are sorry, he did surprise us".

We are also not performance managed according to predicted grades for UCAS but according to the target grades.

If I am 50/50 whether a student will get an A or a B and I it would help the student I would say an A. It strikes me Jabed that you are more concerned about your own survival and would say a B to play it safe.

I also have concerns about a teacher who describes themselves as mercilessly bullying a student.

It also looks like that this particular school, going by what you are saying jabbed will like to cover themselves ( student over performed last year, will under perform this year) I am afraid it doesn't make sense

I am saying it is one scenario. It would be the case at my school where we are performance managed on results and predicted grades as well as ALIS. If I over predict its my neck on the table not the students or the parents.

Any parent who isnt happy needs to go to the top to get that changed. Not hassle me (as is too often the case).

Of course it may be another reason entirely. I dont know as this case is not where I work as far as I know.

It strikes me Jabed that you are more concerned about your own survival and would say a B to play it safe

Of course I am. Its my job on the line. Wouldnt you be concerned for your job? What am I supposed to do? .

I also have concerns about a teacher who describes themselves as mercilessly bullying a student

I am happy to admit to what I have to do to get the results the school demand and the students expect. I sit on them in class making them work. I tutor. I spoon feed. Again , what do you want? Do you want me to lay back and let them stroll their way through to a fail or the grade two grades below that they should be getting according to all indicators?

Do you want me to be like a colleague who told me the other day that she couldnt care less about the results and she couldnt care less about teachiung the students and wasnt going to bother?

The thing is she is a teacher I am a HoD. It wont be her explaining thopse results it will be her HoD. I doubt he knows what she is doing.

I mean , really, what do you want? Results or not?

I am a teacher and do not consider my performance management when predicting grades, I consider what is correct for the student.

I am a good teacher and am not concerned that because of one blip that people may think otherwise . If your survival is so precarious it does not sound like you have a secure career.

I have never bullied students, or spooned them for that matter . That does not mean that I am not a good teacher. Year after year , I get fantastic results.

Thank you Arisbottle you restore the faith, as for Jabbed spoon feeding and bullying her students, well plain wrong IMO.
I wasn't aware that A level students require spoon feeding/forcing to revise/study. DC should be more then able at this stage of their schooling career to manage their time and work schedule.
Arisbottle you sound capable and willing to help students, you obviously look at a much bigger picture, all the qualities good teacher should have. Good to know you are not extinct breed

strictlovingmum, regarding "I wasn't aware that A level students require spoon feeding/forcing to revise/study." ... well, I used to teach A-level Maths and I have a couple of stories.

1. One student didn't show up for his mock exam, do we (the school) phoned home to check why. His father said that the boy wasn't feeling very well, but the father didn't know about the missed mock. So we asked to send the boy to school because we needed the mock results to predict grades for the exam board. While the boy was taking the test, I noticed that he was actually copying from a sheet that somebody had given him (probably another student from the same school - the mock was the same for all classes, but it was taken at different times for different classes). I called the HoD to deal with this. I found it amazing that this student couldn't see that I was on his side, that I wanted him to do well in his exam, and that there was no point in cheating in a mock test. Not surprisingly, this student didn't pass the real exam. How could I have prepared him better?

2. Another student's mum phone school to ask if we could give her son extra material to work from to prepare for the exam. Of course a month earlier we had started to ask all students more than once if they wanted to purchase (for around £ 5) some study booklets, and we had almost run out - it was a couple of weeks before the exam. This boy was lucky to have a mum that cared so much about him (we are talking about a student taking A levels). I arranged for this student to get a study booklet. BTW, this was the same student that wanted to change Maths class (=Maths teacher) because I was reporting his rude behaviour in class (chatting while I was explaining, not doing his homework, doing very little work in class) to the senior management. I have to say I admired his mum, but he didn't deserve her at all.

Teachers have to put up with all this because if students don't pass their exam, the teacher will have to explain WHY.

Of course I had also wonderful students who I am sure will do very well in life, students who said "Thank you for believing in me", "Thank you for spending your lunch hour to help me", students that are polite and try hard. And it's because of these students that teaching is so rewarding.

And going back to the post: When I predicted grades, I did it from the evidence that I had (test results, general attitude of the student, homework grades). Luckily nobody told me to keep the predicted grade low, to be on the safe side. So I guess it depends on the school and on the pressure they are under.

I have some challenging A Level students but I would not spoon feed. In part because while spoon feeding may work to some extent at GCSE it does not work to the same extent at A Level. You get some marks for memorising information but it is mainly evaluation and understanding.

I run extra classes for A Level every week, I run one on one sessions, I chase students for essays, I phone home with concerns, I make students do essays again and again until they get it right and I accept no crap. But I don't bully or spoon feed.

What one person calls 'chasing', 'phoning home', 'making them do .. again and again', 'accepting no crap' another may call bullying arisbottle. For all I know jabed's and your teaching styles may be very similar.

Bullying is a very odd word for a teacher to use .

I suspect Jabed and I have very little in common and I bet he is quite relieved

What one person calls 'chasing', 'phoning home', 'making them do .. again and again', 'accepting no crap' another may call bullying arisbottle. For all I know jabed's and your teaching styles may be very similar

Thank you gelo, that is what I call bullying. Its force and coercion ( although not what many will recognise) and power (as a teacher) to get the student to do as required.

I suppose it is all to do with the tone in which it is done . I would never refer to myself as bullying a student .

I would. But then I threaten to eviscerate my students pretty frequently too...

The head of 6th form at dd' school sent them a letter starting "Many of you will have got this far on native wit alone. This is no longer an option"

A conversation I have had with a fair few of my year 12s...

Some nasty shocks in their first A level tests!

I agree with you Arisbottle. It is all in the tone. Your intention will be clear from your tone. Jabed is saving his and you are guiding your students. They will know who is bullying them and who cares.

Some 'teachers' should never be near young people.

sorry- there was a word after saving his but it has vanished!

Now, jabed talks a load of rubbish a lot of the time, but I don't think it's necessarily valid to extrapolate from that to him being an actual bully in the classroom.

I have more of an issue with the fact that his driving force is protecting his own career rather than helping his pupils . But again that may be in his tone.

I still think that bullying is an odd tone to use, especially when used about a pupil that he has nothing positive to say. It isn't even said with affection as you might say " I will drag that essay out of you " to a student who is missing deadlines. Again it is on the tone which is hard to get across or understand on here .

By that I assume you mean I say things you disagree with TFM? I could also argue that much said here is rubbish. I find it particularly irritating when teachers maintain they teach students to be independent when it blatently clear from those who go on to university ( where I have taught) that is not the case.

A colleague prodded the soft underbelly last week "if all those teachers claiming to teach AfL and discussion and encourage students to follow independent learning in their teaching did so then wy is it that when I try the same I find the children do not have those skills, will not do as they are asked and often directly tell me they cannot and do not want to be taught that way. If they were exposed to that form of teaching they would have developed the skills long before I get them"

It was a brave insight from a very observant lady. I am skeptical about many teachers here who talk the edu talk . I will tell you what I do honestly.

Arisbottle, you protest too much.

Of course that's what I mean jabed! I disagree with you when you ate talking rubbish .

There is certainly a tension between teaching students to be independent learners and making sure they get the grades. Our students are terrible at independent study. We harry them to within an inch of their lives on order for them to meet targets. Gone are the days when you could let them learn from their mistakes.

We try to teach them good study skills. But we don't let them fail of they don't have them. We can't afford to.