Have any schools said what new GCSE grades they will require for A levels yet?

[Balletgirlmum]

I'm trying to gauge what the new requirements will be. For example most schools in my area require you to have got a B in a subject to do it at A level. A couple require an A grade for maths/science.

One school require 5 B & 6 C to continue to A levels.

None have yet published wherher they will require the new grades 4 or 5 in lieu of a C or a 6/7/8 in lie my of a B/A

I'm wondering what other schools are going to be doing.

Selective grammar school expects 57 point from 8 best gcses

Since it's not at all clear what the grade boundaries will mean in terms of actual performance in the exams or against the syllabus, given there hasn't been a cohort assessed yet, worrying about this is rather putting the cart before the horse. The colleges know neither how many people will have particular grades, nor how good those people are in terms of A Level ability.

Doing A Levels from a GCSE B always strikes me as a triumph of hope over experience.

How does points work?

Grades 9 to 1 are used as points, so you'd need for example 7 sevens and one 8

The school dd may go to (a selective school shel added the exsm for at 11 but chose not to go to ) do IGCSE just to confuse things. That's the school with the 5 B 3 c requirement.

That's the school with the 5 B 3 c requirement.

The only reason selective schools impose that requirement is as an admissions code hack which allows them to offer places as of right to their own Y11s before opening it up more widely. If there were no such requirement, things would get trickier.

In reality, 5B 3C (a) would be extremely unusual for someone in a super-selective without huge mitigating circumstances which would be considered on a case-by-case basis and (b) indicates that (with the same caveats about mitigating circumstances) that they are going to struggle seriously with A Level, especially when taught in a school where everyone is targets AAA-ish, or BBB-ish at the very least.

So the number of children from outside the school's own 11+ getting in without mostly A and A* will be very low. Because there's the floor requirement for in-house Y11s, the school will be allowed to interview and then make conditional offers, and those sure as hell won't be 5B 3C (unless it's completely unlike the super-selectives in this city).

It's private & dd would have both sibling priority (ds is there in year 7) plus they said dd would always be welcome back there (I had to pay a terms fees in lieu as we gave up her place last minute - she went to attached junior school & they will deduct the fees if she ever goes back.

We don't have state grammar schools here.

I also took the liberty of emailing the head of science who is ds's form tutor about dd & he confirmed that they would be happy with a B grade to do a science a level. I just need to know what that translates into.

For Science A levels it's a bit more complicated as it depends on whether pupils have done Double or Triple Science at GCSE.
If Triple Science local sixth forms require Bs in allScience subjects i.e. BBB and also grade B Maths. If Double Science at GCSE then they specify AA and a B for Maths.
These are non-selective schools.
But please be aware that most sixth forms have thresholds for pupils moving from Y12 to Y13 and that a higher proportion of pupils with lower entry grades may not complete their A level courses.

At ds's school the teacher said that their double scientists do very well at a level. All that is required is BB (dds school didn't offer triple hence why I asked but is now doing so for the first time)

But this is incidental. I know the current requirements. I just need to know how schools are interpreting the new grades.

I would imagine places offering A Levels that accept a C to accept a 5 and places that accept a B to accept a 6. Because of the way the grades line up this is slightly above the current grades but with A Levels also getting harder it keeps up. For other Level 3 (and Level 2) qualifications it may vary more.

For current Y11 what we know is that the same proportion of students who currently get a C or above will get a 4 or above and those who get an A or above will get a 7 or above.

So courses that require a C will most likely accept a 4 as its direct equivalent and those that require an A will accept a 7.
That's this year, maths and English.

For later years, if they currently take a B for A-level, I'd expect them to want at least a 6 rather than a 5, as the new A-levels are harder than the old ones.

Our local Sixth form has asked for 4s. Really surprised me!

i wondered if places would ask for a 7 instead of a B.

Dd was predicted A/A* under theold system But now all we know is that she should be in the 7-9 Bandung. But no one really knows.

In the 7-9 band literally no one knows. There's currently a consultation going on to decide how to work out the grade 9 boundary (which will affect the 8 boundary).

At the start of the year they were working from a photocopy of one sample copy year 9 maths textbook as the proper copy wasn't yet available.

we've been told by dd's school that they will consider a 6 to be a B - this is for current year 10s so only maths & English in the new system, for year 9 onwards I don't know.

DD has also been told that to do science A levels (without maths A level) she will need "a really solid 7 in maths" as a minimum.

Your thread came to mind when I read about the leaked FE skills white paper and other surrounding discussion.

Quite a few places offer students one A Level and another qualification if they don't get the grades to do 3 or 4 A Levels but this looks like it may not happen in future - the two 'paths' may not be allowed to be mixed.

It also says "Skills Minister Nick Boles also announced on April 29 that schools could soon be fined if they sign students up to inappropriate A-level courses that they later abandon." - this makes me think that sixth forms may increase the entry requirements for A Levels to avoid these fines.

Financial penalties for abandoned A-levels will mean fewer kids attempting tough A-levels like maths and Physics. This will disproportionately affect girls who tend to lack confidence in their abilities.

What an utterly stupid proposal, but not unexpected from this government of idiots.

Well, I think that's a good thing. Ds says that at his sixth form college droves of kids started A Levels - they had to start off with four anyway - and were either uninterested in the subject or completely out of their depth.

I think there's so many mixed messages. There's this drive to get as many people as possible into further education, and the dubious mantra "anybody can achieve anything if you put your mind to it" and then when pupils are unable to step up to an A Level course it's everyone's fault but their own brains.

When I was at school you had to have an A at O Level (no A*s back then) to pursue a subject to A Level. Trying to do A Level Maths with a B is a ridiculous ask and stressful for the pupil.

It's tough for the first cohorts of the 1-9 scheme. Dd will be a victim and I posted a while ago about how the hell are you supposed to know if what's on your results slip is great, good or blah.

I asked the school my ds wants to go to the year after next. They currently want As. They will be asking for 7s.

It's a very high achieving selective school.

Ds's school where dd may go for 6th form only offers A levels I don't know statistics but anecdotally I think the drop out rate is low.

Dds current school is vocational so students do either a 2 year Level 3 diploma or a 3 year Level 6 diploma with the option of taking up to 2 a levels alongside.

That white paper is totally ridiculous. What an appalling idea.