what grade does your school require to do an A level in that subject?

[user1484040234]

My Kids' school currently requires a B grade to do an A level subject. For next year it's going to be a grade 7 with a grade 7 in Maths to do science subjects. Have other schools changed their requirements with the new linear GCSE/A levels? A 7 is supposed to be an A. This is a local comprehensive school.

"Grade 9 = above A* and capped at around the top 3% of all entrants.
Grade 8 = A* (but not quite in same position as it was before)
Grade 7 = A
Grade 6 = high B
Grade 5 (a good pass) = low B or high C
Grade 4 (a standard pass) = C"

^^ this is what I understand about the grades too - except I know the grade 9 as 'A**'
I actually think it is completely pointless to have an A** capped at the top 3% - who needs to make that differentiation at GCSE level? Of what possible use is it? If you get a 7/8/9 you are academically able in that subject - end of

Answering the question - yes a 6 or grade B equivalent is typical around here

People who seem to think anyone with a grade 5 average at GCSE can or should just wander off and get an apprenticeship clearly haven't thought of a few things:

a) quite a lot of the genuinely interesting apprenticeships begin at 17 or 18 and require transport, which not all young people have easy access to
b) rural and semi-rural areas have a paucity of apprenticeships
c) as a few have pointed out, not all grade 4, 5 and 6 children have vocational leanings . They may well love history , MFL etc , but just not be in the academic elite
d) the MOST LIKELY outcome does not mean that is what all students get. I have taught students with grade 5 equivalent at A level. Some have got Cs, some Es , some Bs.
e) apprenticeships are actually quite hard to get on. Students often need interviews of some rigour , and some relevant experience , and - oh!- interest. A bunch of students doing them because they have to is good for no one.

My DS is doing A levels with one A (Spanish) , an A, a 6 in maths and Eng Lit and then the rest 5s and Cs (D in Geog). He is obviously doing an A Level in the subject he got an A in and this is the one he is doing worst in!!!!

I'd like to know what MN suggests he should have done instead of A levels since most of you think he isn't really up to it. Like mountford he would set your house on fire if he tried to be an electrician, would drown you if he tried plumbing and would hide under the table if he tried shop work or sales. He has no plans or ambitions at present , so even if he had not done A levels, he would have had not one clue what to do instead. I am a teacher. I am not describing anything approaching an unusual child.

And a Grade 5 is now just a "good pass" instead of a necessity.

Except it isn't for the league tables. School headline figures will be based on 9-5 not 9-4, to get the Ebacc in school figures, kids have to get a 5. So the DfE are saying to employers, colleges, universities 'A 4 is fine, keep accepting a 4', but to schools 'A 4 isn't good enough, they have to get 5s'. Talk about lack of joined up thinking and a huge pile of confusion.

It seems to be a lottery as to what is available to those Grade 5/C average students.

Where I live those students could study one of a myriad of btec qualifications instead of pure A levels on subjects such as Science, Budiness, Computing, Engineering, Social Sciences, Art & Design, Sport or Oerforming Arts.

alexander even so, my DS would not want to do any of those things! He would not enjoy the higher IT element of any of them and I must admit I am sceptical of the coursework at BTec but not for this thread...

That aside you must live in a city to have all that choice.

At my (large) market town high achieving comp, students can do vocational childcare course and ,f rom next year, BTec business. That's it . they have to take 2 A levels alongside this so the same problem/ issue remains.

At my DS's school the only vocational qualifications are engineering and, I think, Performing Arts. Again, they need to complement these with A level study.

I genuinely think we need to move away form the idea that BTecs are 'for' middle achieving students. They are for students with an aptitude in a particular are which lends itself to a BTec style qualification and for those rare students at aged 15 who already know what field they want to specialise in. Those students could be very able! (and,in fact entrance requirements for engineering are high)

I'm not in a city though I'm not far away from a city. I'm in a large town but the difference is that most schools don't have 6th forms so there is a large FE/6th form college where you can mix & match subjects.

Surely a "good pass" is something like a 7 rather than a 5.

No Fffion - you're wrong.

7 = A grade
Are you saying a B grade isn't a good pass?

The sixth form near me used to required Cs in what you were studying and 4 Cs in total and now requires 5s instead of Cs.

(I think it's a decent enough school. - 73% of entries came out as A-C at A level, and 97% A-E)

5 is officially a 'strong pass' not a good pass, compared to the 'standard pass' of a 4.

Why can't we just ditch the multiple passes (a 1 is also a pass of course...) And just refer to grades. I can't think of any situation where referring to a grade wouldn't do the job, and be far less confusing than this nonsense.

What would posters who think 4's and 5's are useless as entry to A Level study say to the child that wants to be an Art teacher and is taking Art, Textiles and Theatre Studies at our school? She was definitely a C student and is doing very well in Y13. Comprehensives demanding 6's across the board are saying future teachers are too dim to study with them.

Pumpkini
I would expect her to have higher grades in those subjects she wants to study to a level if I'm honest.
I would also makr her aware that she will need to sit a literacy ajd numeracy test to teach so if she was a 4/5 student who had shed loads of intervention then ahe may find thrm tricky. It wouldn't be a barrier but it would be soemthing to work on.

For me, a bigger issue is 4/5 borderline students taking traditional academic subjects when they got the 4/5 through extensive intervention. A grade 5 student who worked well was a 5/6 student and got their 5s in thr end is much more prepared (in my opinion) than a 4/5 student with endless intervention.

Fffion Sat 11-Nov-17 15:21:01
Surely a "good pass" is something like a 7 rather than a 5.

A 'pass' is 4 in terms of grade C and above.
A 'good pass' is a 5 - high C/low B.
A 6 is a grade B
A 7 is a grade A.
An 8 is a grade A with a 9 being the top %age of that group - almost like an A*

So, a 7 is an A - why would a low B or a standard/high B not be classed as good??

No wonder our teens are so stressed and pressured these days. The constant pressure from adults, most of who haven't sat an exam for years, are telling them that a B is now longer classed as any good! So many adults seem insistent on setting our kids up to keep like failures, the Government at the top of that list!

Obviously 1-3 are also a pass in terms of getting a GCSE, but every knows they are not a pass in terms of moving onto A level/level 3 type study.

Our sixth form requires 4/5s for most subjects at A level with 6s for sciences and a 6 but ideally a 7 for maths. They get 25% of A level results with AAB with two facilitating subjects required for Russell Group and a good few Oxbridge entries each year and are rated Outstanding by Ofsted - the same goes for all the sixth forms locally and all perform well above the national average for A level results.

I am aware of the retake situation. I teach Maths. You could set a grade as the threshold. In fact, a grade is set as the threshold. There is no need to label it as any kind of special level of pass. Because if that threshold is changed (as it has been) you would not have the whole definition of pass up for grabs again.

The 7/8 boundary is within the old A grade.

This means that some getting an 8 now would have got an A rather than an A*.

A 9 is a top A*.

Also "cut off for decent ability in a subject" is again a really subjective description. What is decent ability? I would say my grade 4s have functional ability. I wouldn't want them doing A level. I would set different thresholds for different subjects too at A level, as I said below.

The old grades and the new grades are actually not directly comparable, except in proportion of cohort terms. And not even that going forward. The specifications are very different. It is comparing apples and oranges. Ofqual themselves have been pretty clear on that, and they are the ones who set the grade boundary criteria for the reformed qualifications.

I don't think many would dare take maths without a grade 7, but there used to be a practical maths paper for those who enjoyed the subject but didn't need such a theoretical next step. I assume that option has gone out the window these days.

For those of you suggesting a cut in corporation tax to fund apprenticeships, the funding model for apprenticeships is a joke in some industries. For example a level 7 apprenticeship for accountants has just been launched which will subsidise the training costs for professional exams. Accountancy firms will typically see the cost of graduate training (which they would automatically have paid anyway) reduce from around £15k to £2k with the £13k saving improving profits rather than funding more vacancies. Meanwhile organisations like the NHS are forced to pay the apprenticeship levy, but appropriate apprenticeships simply don't exist in many areas where they are crying out for staff.

sticker Core Maths exists : I am not sure that is its official name but I think this is what you mean. They offer it at a my school but not at DS's. Offered at quite a few schools as a supplement for students doing science, economics and any other mathsy A level or for borderline sixth form entry students.