Secondary school league tables are out

[LondonMother]

This is an interesting one for people in SE London.

[gelo]

AQA Bacc requires either general studies OR crit thinking to AS level, not A2 Mordion. No idea what's done in Colyton, but if more than AS in one of those subjects it's over and above what's needed for AQA bacc.

[MordionAgenos]

I told you what they do, they do crit thinking AS, general studies A2, 4 other A2s and the extended project. General studies does not replace a 4th academic A level. Some kids do 5 plus general studies.

[gelo]

Well you should know, so I'll assume that's right even though you were wrong about the ebacc. With 3 years to do them all and bright kids it doesn't sound too much. No wonder they have such impressive league table points per candidate scores!

[MordionAgenos]

DD1 has just done her A level options. You can assume what you want. If you don't want to believe me then that's up to you. The letter I have which was sent to the parents says that Gen Studies is needed for the Ebacc and they do GS to A2 level. Perhaps they do do over and above what is required. 4 Other academic A levels is over and above what is required as well. It's a bit of a theme.

[gelo]

AQA Bacc info here
Technically what the school said was correct but a bit misleading. AS only required and if they are doing Crit Thinking too then Gen studies isn't really required.

For some reason I thought your dd was a year younger - time flies I guess.

[MordionAgenos]

Gelo you are clearly confusing me with someone else.

[Yellowtip]

gelo to counter your point about A Levels, you can probably concede that being top of the table for GCSEs all taken in one go in Y10 is fairly impressive. They must be doing something right!

[breadandbutterfly]

How do the pupils like doing A Levels over 3 years? Sounds like a good way to reduce the pressure. And study in more depth - Gove should like it.

[gelo]

From everything I've heard about Clyton yellow (which is I think entirely from this site) it sounds like a superb school. I don't need to concede anything as I'm not trying to score points. I wasn't having a go about Colyton or trying to make any statement about it (I live miles away and know next to nothing about it), my contribution to this thread was just correcting some misinformation about AQA bacc. and from that somehow it was imagined I was attacking the school I think.

[Yellowtip]

It was only your point about three years = easier to notch up A level points gelo, hence my yes but as against that GCSEs are taken a year early and they do very well in the tables on that.

I guess it would be very popular with almost all sixth formers bread. Far more scope for depth and for other non curriculum stuff too.

[gelo]

Ahh I see, that point was actually meant as a defense that doing so many A levels was reasonably sensible in the circumstances because the children have time to do them. If they were trying to squeeze GS & CT into 2 years, then I'd say it looked more as if they were chasing league table points. (I'm sure the school doesn't mind that they gain so many points either, but they need to keep the children occupied for 3 years so it makes more sense to do those extras)

[Theas18]

Glad to see my 2 schools are maintaining their position nip and tuck with the local independents depending on which measure you take

However I'm also very aware that this just shows that stats that they want you to see about academic stuff. It does reinforce my feelings that we have secondary modern schools here even though they are allegedly comps.

re AQA bacc. DD1 did it with just AS crit thinking and extended study project. Just reminded yesterday as for some unexplained reason the certificate arrived in the post from school. She's in her 2nd year at uni LOLOLOL

[gelo]

And the extended project too, which I think is a great thing to do, but it is time consuming so it wouldn't be right to mandate it with only 2 years for sixth form I don't think (optional is fine in 2 years though).

[prosopon]

The GSCE results at Colyton are impressive but when students take 12 exams each that certainly helps the point count. The school are also clearly being economical with the truth about what the AQA Bacc requires and apparently misleading parents in the process. The students have to make their A level choices a year early, with the impact that has on possible career choices later. Taking 4 A levels might help with that but it's still a major drawback.

Of course universities don't often place extra value on having 12 GSCEs, regard General Studies as a waste of time and may expect higher grades from students who've had three years to study for their A levels. Medical schools dislike students taking 3 years to get A levels. That might explain the limited number of schools forcing students to take exams so early.

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

@prosopon The school is not being economical with the truth about the AQA Bacc, I obviously misread the bumf they sent home (not for the first time or, I'm sure, the last). However it is certainly the case that the kids do General Studies to A2 not to AS which was the inaccurate information I was originally correcting.

AIUI universities expect high grades because the school is a high performing one. The school also doesn't seem to have any problem getting kids into medical school but since not everyone wants to go to medical school (shock horror) this is somewhat irrelevant.

[Yellowtip]

Besides which proposon med schools mind only that exams are taken in the conventional period not that GCSEs are taken a year early thus leaving three years to study more broadly in the sixth form. I understand the school to have an exceptional record in getting students into med school in recent years, so what you say just doesn't stack up.

And why on earth would any school wilfully mislead parents on something like this? That's absurd.

[Yellowtip]

In fact proposon, to my certain knowledge, some students at these really excellent schools get relatively low offers (even for Medicine) because the unis want to snap them up and they've already pretty much proved their academic credentials.

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

Poor old DD1 seems to have picked possibly the only career path where her academic credentials will do her no favours whatsoever! C'est la vie.

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

Mind you, the scope offered by the extended project might turn out to be a bit of a boon.

[Yellowtip]

ROTS but what a dreamy career . Perhaps she could do a reverse Einstein. You know, dabble in theoretical sciency stuff as a break from the day job. Especially having that triple science background at GCSE :).

Oops sorry prosopon, I see now that I read your name wrong. It's arguable that carrying on 12 subjects for GCSE cuts off less subjects as choices for A Level in Y11 than slashing subjects to 8 in Y9. I've seen both systems in action and for bright kids the condensing of KS3 to enable a three year sixth form trumps pretty much all of the downsides.

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

Yellow - she'll prob end up teaching either all or a lot of the time. So perhaps not such a dreamy career as one might hope. But it is what she wants to do even if she does end up mainly teaching. So, that's ok I suppose!

I would actually definitely argue that forcing triple science at GCSE is not good. But we knew we were signing up for that from the start so, you know - it is what it is. DD1 would definitely have preferred Drama to Chemistry though. Or art.

[Yellowtip]

I suppose that's the only good thing about having starved mine of music. They've each got to do Art or Drama alongside the rest (except for maverick DS2 who rebelled).

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

Well, she didn't have to do Hist or Geog, did she - she chose them. So she made her own bed and of course adores them so it worked out well (touching wood now obviously). I think its a good sign when a kid wants (and is encouraged) to take all of their 3 free choice options on to A level - it means they chose right. So, I don't really think that making all their choices early does disadvantage the kids at all. Dying of the slow boredom of entropy might, though.

[Yellowtip]

I took a slightly off the wall approach to entropy which was to read the Problem Page of my Teen Magazine ('Diana') under the desk.

[Yellowtip]

I AM NOT ADVOCATING THAT FOR YOUR DD I HASTEN TO ADD.