Escuse my ignorance but what the hell is a 'baccalaureate'?

[Bomper]

Just been to Yr8 meeting at my ds's school, and was told that they were aiming for all students to have a 'AQA Baccalaureate'. WTF is that?

In my area of Wales all 6th formers take Welsh bac, level 1, 2 or 3 depending on ability.

2nd what tokyo posted. AQA may have a Bac, but it is not THE IB.

I have so much respect for the IB as it is not influenced by political nonsense, and you can be assured that standards are maintained.

"I have so much respect for the IB as it is not influenced by political nonsense, and you can be assured that standards are maintained."

Or so they say, anyway. The idea that any exam exists free of either political or market interference is the sort of thing the fairies at the bottom of my garden talk about. As ever, until people make their minds up as to whether an exam is norm-based (show these skills, demonstrate you know this stuff, get this grade) or distribution-based (the top X% get this grade, the next Y% get this other grade), it's all pretty meaningless.

My Dd has just started this at her school. It is in addition to A levels. They must do an extended project on a topic they are not studying for A level and I think that they have to do a presentation on this topic.They also keep an online diary of extracurricular activities and have to complete a certain number of hours ( I think 100) but so many activities can be used that I think most students would easily do this..whether sports, or in plays or musical activities, or something that they volunteer or help out with.
The more difficult part seems the extended project (though we were told that they all "enjoyed researching" this!!)
I'm not sure if there is anything else required. Then they are given this extra qualification. I presume that it is to help their university application stand out with so many high grades being achieved.
It is something different from the IB.