GCSE Subjects and the EBacc

[lexie01]

My DD1 is in yr5 and I have started to investigate local secondary schools. Our local comp is rated Ofsted outstanding and scores well in the League Tables (GCSE a-c or equivalent 90%). However it's EBacc scores are quite low (20%) which is a worry.

I have asked the school twice to provide me with a breakdown of all the subjects which students took GCSE's in but they have refused and simply refer me back to the league tables.

Am I asking the wrong questions or do they simply not have to provide this information??

[prh47bridge]

Yes, that is correct. No idea what the rationale is but I agree it seems odd.

[senua]

Thanks prh but that was one of the websites that I googled. It didn't seem right so I was wondering if I had misunderstood it.
Note (b) on the English page says "Where the English Language and English Literature GCSE/iGCSE option is chosen exams in both must be taken (although not necessarily provided by the same exam board) and a C grade or above achieved in English Language and an A*-G grade or U awarded in English Literature."

Am I right in thinking that either:

1. you pass a combined Lang&Lit paper, or
   
2. you have to pass the Lang paper but for the Lit paper, as long as you enter for and make some attempt at exams/coursework, no-ones cares what the actual result is?
   

[prh47bridge]

Blissx - The EBC which would have replaced some GCSEs is not going through but there is still the possibility that at some point students will be awarded a certificate for achieving the EBacc. And employers may well be interested in whether or not a student got the necessary GCSEs, so I think pupils will be viewed as "earning" the EBacc.

senuaa - There is an Excel spreadsheet with a list of the qualifications that count towards the EBacc (covering all subjects, not just English) here. There is a separate sheet for each subject. Be warned that you need to scroll up on each sheet to see the full list. And don't forget to check the notes for each qualification.

[lexie01]

Thank you so much blissx and everyone for your comments. I have been away for a few days hence the lack of reponse. Isn't it amazing how schools differ in terms of the information they provide parents. Some seem to trust parents to make an informed opinion on all the facts whilst some seem to hide what they deem to be slightly negative information. If my daughters prospective school were open and honest about these stats and what they doing to improve the situation I really wouldn't have a problem. It is the fact that they are seemingly trying to hide them that concerns me and makes me now determined to find the answers.

I will update this post next week and let you all know what happens. Thanks everyone once again x

[Blissx]

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "earn the EBacc". The EBacc Certificate is probably not going through as stated by Gove a few weeks ago that it would be scrapped, which is what pupils would have "earnt". The current EBacc is purely a school measure on how many students gained GCSEs in the EBacc subjects at a particular school. Lexie01, I hope you get the data you want after Half Term and can help you with your decision making.

[Blissx]

Prh47bridge-I didn't mean what you thought I meant! Crossed wires I think and sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I meant that I interpreted what lexie01 thought that as most pupils get 10 GCSEs and as the EBacc covers 5 subjects, pupils can still get a rounded education by doing 5 more subjects. I was just pointing out that due to the fact that most pupils will take Double English and Double/Triple Science, those "10" GCSEs are often not made up of 10 separate subjects and therefore not as rounded as could be first thought. Does that make sense?

[lemonmajestic]

My dds school does publish all the GCSE and A level results by subject including all grades. This information is available on the website and in the school prospectus. So I don't think that your request is unreasonable.

For a non-selective school an EBacc level of 20-30& does sound about right. This could be because only pupils in the top set (or who reach a certain NC level in MFL) take MFL at GCSE. Under the previous government, it was not compulsory for pupils to take a MFL at GCSE and I am aware of some schools locally that stopped offering this as a option at GCSE. They were caught out when the EBacc was introduced but most are offering this now, although it may not show up in their results for a few years.

Some faith schools also have lower EBacc percentages because larger numbers of their pupils take RS as their humanities option which leaves less room for History and Geography which are the 2 humanities required for the EBacc.

HTH

[happyAvocado]

tiggytape is good to know that they encourage uptake of more academic subjects, however my point was to the common quote of "MFL and Latin" - as they won't accept Latin as a foreign language
my son has Latin at school but it would have been his option to take, however he prefers Art&design and Food Tech - I think for him that would balance out other subjects nicely

[lljkk]

Could OP get the info using FOI? I bet she could, actually.

[happyAvocado]

I think introduction of Ebacc is a good thing

www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00215171/ebacc-means-twice-as-many-take-academic-subjects-

However I just read that for instance UCL expects all applicants at least C in a MFL, excluding lating, ancient greek and hebrew

[meditrina]

I though all subjects had to be at a C or higher to count either in any 5 scores or EBACC.

The schools will have the data the OP is requesting. It's just a case of whether it costs them over the prescribed limit to cut and paste the subject totals. As some schools publish similar information on their websites anyhow, I think it would be hard to argue disproportionate cost.

[senua]

You are forgiven prh. It is a (scarily!) common typo!.

Can you do me a link to a reference regarding detailed rules re English please. I've been googling around and there seems to be a lot of loose terminology. I've found one ref which says that Lit is not included and another which says that you need Lang at A-C and also Lit, but that Lit can be anything from A-U.

[prh47bridge]

Sorry - senua not sensua. Too late at night!

[prh47bridge]

Sensua - For clarity, the English qualification for EBacc can be achieved either by taking both Eng Lang and Eng Lit or by taking a single GCSE which has elements of both Eng Lang and Eng Lit. It is not possible for a student to earn the EBacc by doing only one of the two subjects.

[tiredaftertwo]

Senua, I agree with you about the gaming.

Maybe the answer is that all schools have to publish all subjects taken and grades achieved.

That, along with the contextual data, could maybe help stop the game playing? It does seem to me that the more data are published, the harder it is to game the system.

[tiredaftertwo]

Tiggytape, I completely agree. The more information we have the better. I was given the subjects sat and grades taken at schools with quite poor headline figures, and those data showed that behind the headlines there were plenty of children achieving very highly.

Senua, no-one is saying it should be 100%. But it is perfectly reasonable, and a parent's perogative, to think the national average should be higher than 15%. Five GCSEs at C or higher in basic academic subjects that open doors. And comprehensives vary in their intake, and that information too is now available on the main tables, so ebacc figures can be read in that context.

[senua]

I agree TT2 but, on re-reading, I am going to take issue with the OP. She said that the school's "EBacc scores are quite low (20%) which is a worry". The national average is about 15% and the school in question is a Comp, so how is 20% described as "quite low"?

I think that the EBacc is a good idea but I think that it is starting to be corrupted already. The whole idea was to get away from the 'prizes for all' mentality where, the moment something was measured, schools competed to out-do each other by, ahem, inventive means (eg BTec worth 4 GCSE). The EBacc was never meant to be achievable by all, it was meant to be a way to differentiate.
Am I right in thinking that some schools are already being inventive by no longer recommending Eng Lang and Eng Lit, because you only need one English GCSE for the EBacc?

[tiredaftertwo]

If the reason the Ebacc scores are low is that the (for the sake of argument) "level 5 at KS2 kids" are doing GCSEs in astronomy, RS, etc, then a list of subjects taken and grades received would show this.

I bet that isn't the reason.

IMO, it is completely reasonable to ask schools what subjects children take. Why on earth wouldn't parents want to know that?

If a data analyst has to spend hours crunching data to produce a list of subjects taken and grades achieved, then its is hard to see how the school is managing its own performance. Many schools do produce this information, and it allows you to put flesh on the bones of the league tables.

[ByTheWay1]

Our school releases a grade table in their prospectus - it says how many kids take which subjects, at GCSE and A'Level - what grades they achieved and whether Male/Female, it was part of the reason we chose that school - they actually had 3 girls who took A'Level Physics... no other local non-grammar/non fee school had ANY girls taking the subject at A' level. And only one other+our school had any girls taking A'Level Maths!!!

Wouldn't worry about EBacc at all...

[lljkk]

History & Geography are still the poor cousins of all other subjects, though. Their classrooms were consistently the tattiest we saw (3 state secondaries last year).

[prh47bridge]

Also the EBacc has made a difference. Prior to its introduction there had been a long term drift away from modern foreign languages, history and geography. That has been reversed. In 2010 only 22% of GCSE pupils were entered into exams that would have earned the EBacc whereas 48% of pupils starting GCSE studies last year have the potential to earn the EBacc with their chosen subjects.

One can argue about whether or not this is a good thing, of course.

[prh47bridge]

Blissx - I'm afraid you haven't understood the EBacc. The exam boards all offer an English GCSE which is a single subject and meets the requirements of the EBacc. Similarly science can be a single GCSE - Science Double Award. So Lexie is correct that it is possible for a student to gain the EBacc with only 5 GCSEs.

There is also a new performance measure coming in which will show the proportion of students gaining the EBacc plus three further GCSEs.

[Blissx]

Your comment lexie01 about the EBacc only covering 5 subjects as most take 10, is misleading. Of the 5, science counts for three and English for two (lang and lit). That is usually 8 in total as a number of GCSEs. Therefore, most year 9s will only have two more subjects they can choose from. Not five more. Not as rounding an education as Gove will have you believe. I really think you are placing too much value on the EBacc and falling into Gove's trap of being 'seen' to do something, but not doing anything of value, yet. Also, the majority of schools will have a prospectus they will provide you with GCSE and A Level subject data when your DC is in Year 6. Can you wait until then?