Unethical exam practice?

[dylexicdementor11]

morning, I'm moving this post from the ‘private school’ thread for more traffic.

A famous private senior school in our city is known to engage in some practices that seem highly unethical.
The school forces children not expected to excel in their exams to take them independently. And they require under preforming students to enlist private tutors.
The schools exam results are outstanding. But this isn’t surprising if they only allow some children to take exams.
These practices seem to be an open secret. My question is- are these practices generally accepted? Are schools not required to disclose the number of children registered/paying fees at the school in addition to disclosing how many students sat exams?
If they are not, how can parents trust the results they report? Am I missing something?

This has been happening for years

Thanks for replying. It seems outrageous. If I remember correctly there was a big stink a few years ago when state secondary schools in London were found to have off registered troublesome kids before exams. I’m surprised there isn’t more of an uproar when the private system does the same.

Doesn't a certain horsey girls school in Yorkshire (with a lawyers who comb sites like this) actually register as two schools for exams and only put it's A* students in the one called "Horsey School" and the other students through as "HS" to manipulate the league tables?

I went to a mediocre private school twenty years ago and some people were required to have extra tutoring, it was part of the offer after common entrance.

State schools do what they can to adjust their data too.

The whole point about independent schools is that they are independent and because they receive no state funding they can do what they like. Be under no illusion, state schools also do what they can in order to meet targets, they are just more limited in their ability to do so.

Not sure what you mean by ‘generally accepted’ - there are plenty of private schools that are nonselective and less wrapped up in exam results. There are others that prioritise exam results above all else and will be curating their results from the admissions process. The former sometimes get slated for ‘lacklustre results’ and as a parent it can be easy to get sucked in to believing a school with exceptional results will guarantee those results for your child. The reality though is that it is a two way street with the school - they will be laser focused on getting those results and if your child cannot ‘deliver’ you will be pressured into tutoring or potentially managed out. I personally I would be wary of schools that are known for this sort of pressure, but some people seem to think their children need to be pushed like this? It is by no means a common practice throughout the independent sector though, ad as you mention isn’t unique to independent sectors either. It is common practice to exclude send children from SATs for example.

This is extremely common and has been going on for many years - and includes some big school names.

People have been commenting that the results at our local independent have improved significantly in the last few years. They used to ask you to leave if you weren’t going to make the grade. Now they ask you to take the exam privately but you can stay there.

It’s not being entirely dishonest but it’s definitely bending the truth.

I trust the published results of private schools who concentrate on value add and take a wide range of abilities far more than “top” performing schools. Also look how quickly a school publishes detailed data by subject after results day. Those that publish the same day are more likely to be real than the ones who do headline numbers and then wait several months before publishing.

I do, however, question where parents use results as their main deciding factor when picking schools.

One of my daughters went to a state sixth form college for a small independent- because the college had more A level options.

She wanted to do Maths alongside her "best" subjects (arts) even though she knew she had no chance of a high grade - because she enjoyed it and thought it a useful skill to keep up with.

At a parents evening I was told she was "below average" in her scores. Well, duh, someone has to be, that's how averages work. They told her she could not continue with the Maths A level as they expected their students to be in with a chance of getting at least an A.

Not just private schools.

At my DD's private school they were very accommodating if you wanted to drop subjects before you registered and paid for the GCSE exams. I was happy with this as she has a learning difficulty and I wanted her to focus only on the core subjects that she needed for her college admission and only take the additional subjects that she had a chance of passing.

The extra tuition was one of the great things about going private. She had so much additional support , some of it one to one and some in very small group lessons. They brought in an outside company to assist with GCSE support and exam technique training. All of this was covered by the school fees.

I know she wouldn't have got her 6 passes if she has gone to state school ( she started off in state secondary but we moved her when we realised she was struggling)

I never thought they might be trying to improve league tables , it just felt that they were doing what was best for each individual child.

DS went to state grammar and there was no additional support or tutoring offered in the run up to GCSEs but I do know other local state schools put on holiday revision courses.

It’s only some private schools. Is the one you are talking about in North Yorkshire?

Thanks everyone. As mentioned in my second post, I’m aware that this happens in state education as well. However what surprises me is that there isn’t more outrage over it happening in schools where parents are paying 30+ k for day fees.

A school kindly encouraging a child not to sit exams they are not expected to do well in is absolutely fine. What is not okay, in my opinion, is when a school does not make the number of children that sat the exams explicit.

I agree with the poster that said that the most important data is the ‘value added’.

The school I’m referring to is in SE England.

School my brother went to solved their problem group of boys who were "only" going to get Ds and Es by expelling them for having too long hair.
However they ignored the group of girls who were A/B students who were caught red-handed by teachers selling drugs to the younger years...

Not uncommon to have more than one centre number.

i would think flagging students who need extra tutor assistance is standard.
even in elementary years students who struggle with reading/spelling/math get extra assistance in school or with out of school recommendations made by the school. some parents would think that a sign of a good school.