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Secondary education

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Original poster

Daughter kicked out of 6th form **Title edited by MNHQ**

143 replies

Dollytwoshoes · 01/09/2017 22:54

My daughter has been told she can not return to her complete her psychology A level because she failed her AS. Through out year 12 she's been on target for a B's.They have advised her to do applied science 1/2 A level (whatever this means) instead. Is this because this won't be published in the league tables? I've put in an formal complaint and asking to see governors. Is the head acting lawfully with my daughters best interests at heart. Has anyone else had to deal with this?

OP posts:
wannabestressfree · 03/09/2017 15:09

@cantkeepawayforever that's what we would like to happen as we 'pick up' the dumped perceived underachievers from the Grammars.

cantkeepawayforever · 03/09/2017 15:25

However, there should be a mechanism for the schools on which these children are 'dumped' to ALSO have successes recorded. It might mean that schools have to report 2 sets of results: the results gained by the pupils who were on the daily register at the point the exams were taken, and also the results gained by the pupils who started the school in Y12, wherever they took their exams.

So a school like Olave's might have 90% A-B on the first figure, but with maybe only 80% on the second (as 12% of their pupils had gone elsewhere after Y12 and 10% hadn't got those grades), whereas a local 'destination school for those dropped by high performing schools' might get 25% A-B for pupils who started there, but 35% once they had done well by those dumped on them.

cantkeepawayforever · 03/09/2017 15:26

(Percentages purely imaginary, and just for illustration)

BitOutOfPractice · 03/09/2017 15:32

I can see that Piggy Grin

What was the title before MNHQ edited?

The OP's situation is irrelevant now anyway since her DD has miraculously gone up 2 grades in the course of 48 hours over a weekend

Piggywaspushed · 03/09/2017 15:34

The title mentioned the town so I think it was too identifying.

BitOutOfPractice · 03/09/2017 15:55

Ah, I see, thanks Piggy (I feel rude calling you that!)

Piggywaspushed · 03/09/2017 16:18

I actually now basically think I am called Piggy...

BitOutOfPractice · 03/09/2017 16:22

Hello Piggy, I'm BOOP Grin Nice to meet you!

Piggywaspushed · 03/09/2017 16:30

haha! Grin

tiggytape · 03/09/2017 16:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ta1kinPeece · 03/09/2017 16:40

cantkeep
I do think that if we arrive at a situation where a pupil CANNOT have it suggested that continuing to an A-level is not the best course of action
I would never ever suggest that scenario
BUT
Schools (and colleges) set GCSE limits for A level entry - I totally approve - at DCs college it is generally B or above

If, only a year later , the child is at U grade, something has gone badly wrong, not just with the child.

If the situation is that the school guessed it wrong and the child needs to take courses the school cannot offer, then the SCHOOL should find the replacement place, not the parents.
Because the school are the ones who screwed up (as they have the multi year, multi pupil data sets, not the parents)

Selective schools will be hit hard by this as they tend not to have BTECs and NVQs on tap
a somebody who hates selective state schools
bring it on Grin

tiggytape · 03/09/2017 16:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

noblegiraffe · 03/09/2017 17:50

What will we see these schools doing in the future? Why do I suspect that rather than raising their game and taking the 'B' grade kids at the end of Y12 onto top grades in Y13, what they'll do is raise their entry requirements at the start of Y12?

Ta1kinPeece · 03/09/2017 18:03

noble
what they'll do is raise their entry requirements at the start of Y12?
Actually I do not have a problem with that
because it means that other schools will get more and more pupils who can get high grade A levels
and thus spread the excellence

Their cohort might still get stellar results, but it will shrink by a lot

cantkeepawayforever · 03/09/2017 18:16

Noble,

I can see your point, but the 'pool' of prospective Y12s won't be any smaller - in fact rather larger as the cohort size is due to grow year on year in line with the birth rate.

I can see more 'shuffling' at the end of Y11 in selective schools. For example, they will seek to get rid of any of their Y11s who have not made the grade (locally at least, progress from Y11-Y12 WITHIN selective schools is MUCH easier than getting in from another school) but, unless they want their funding to decrease, they will have to take roughly the same numbers as currently.

Equally, more 'lower end of selective spectrum' pupils will be released to the non-selective schools - whether that will make up for the higher number of top ability kids these non-selective schools will lose, i don't know.

Where I think it will really bite is that, in schools or colleges who offer both A-levels and Btecs there will be much more selectivity about who they allow to take A-levels and who they push towards non A-level courses.

cantkeepawayforever · 03/09/2017 18:18

I suppose what I mean is:

  • in schools that only offer A-levels, unless they wish to reduce cohort size and lose funding, the selectivity will probably become more equal for internal and external candidates.
  • However, in schools and colleges that offer a mix of qualifications, there will be less willingness to allow borderline students a stab at A-levels before readjusting - they will simply be pushed towards non-A-level courses from the beginning.
Ta1kinPeece · 03/09/2017 18:21

cantkeep
I live in an entirely comp county with 6th form colleges
we already have the shuffling that seems to be so freaking out the people in Bromley
it works
its minimal stress
they all select but nobody seems to hit the gaps
and no 11+ or god bothering Grin

Clavinova · 03/09/2017 18:50

in schools that only offer A-levels.......the selectivity will probably become more equal for internal and external candidates.
I agree - minimum entry requirements will be raised for internal candidates.

Ta1kinPeece
At your dcs' 6th form college last year 70 students obtained a U grade for AS Maths and I think the minimum entry requirement was an A grade at GCSE.

Ta1kinPeece · 03/09/2017 18:57

clavinova
yup
some kids do well at GCSE and use AS maths as a space filler and discover they hate it
ah well
that's life
70 out of over 800
not the end of the world

noblegiraffe · 03/09/2017 19:45

can't I was thinking of that other thread where the kid at the grammar wasn't allowed to do A-level maths with an A - they wanted an A*. Now it's blatantly ridiculous to exclude those students from doing maths, and the OP was looking for another school as the DS wanted to do engineering, but there may well be other students who weren't so wedded to the idea of maths who might be persuaded into other courses. So in that situation the grammar school gets to keep the kid, but the kid doesn't get to do the courses that they want.

titchy · 03/09/2017 20:05

Copper how are you helping OP?

titchy · 03/09/2017 20:05

Oops wrong thread . I'll get my coat Blush

Ta1kinPeece · 03/09/2017 20:13

But Copper is so helpful to all of us Wink

titchy · 03/09/2017 20:21

That she is! Grin

noblegiraffe · 03/09/2017 22:06

How come you all know who Copper is and I don't?

Actually I have a vague idea that some other people on here are also namechangers who I should recognise but I don't, because I'm a maths teacher not a words teacher. I probably wouldn't recognise my own posts if they weren't in a different colour.