What happens to the kids who now won’t get into 6th form college for Alevels due to the algorithm?

[L00ptheL00p]

Where do they go? They can’t go back to their old schools and Autumn way too early for retakes after all this trauma and a 9 month education gap.

What on earth are they supposed to do?

My DD is right in the middle of this. She has been offered a chunky scholarship to a boarding school to do IB at 6th form. That came with a fairly chunky conditional offer for her GCSEs. Normally it would be achievable but she was ill for some of her mocks which probably means that there was a level of downgrading for her in the rankings (liveable) but now also means she won't be in a position to appeal based on mocks. We can't afford to send her if she doesn't get the scholarship so she will basically lose out on a lifetime opportunity that she has worked so hard for because she was unwell in January and then CV hit.

There should be places for all - the number of places hasn’t changed. Just much more complicated process getting students to the appropriate post-16 provision for their choice in the right capability band

Students are entitled to three years of 6th form. They would be better off giving lower strainers with higher CAG scores the benefit of the doibt with the understanding that if they don’t cope with their A-Level courses by next year, they have a further two years to complete a more appropriate Level 3 course.

How would it possible for a pupil to do 3 years instead of 2? Will sixth forms and colleges morph to have one third extra capacity and teachers?

My ds may have to do a lower course and so 3 years but I am at this moment so glad I finally got his ehcp sorted as it names the college.

So he'll get in whatever the results.

I don't think having a disability has ever been an advantage before.
They've already had him in, set up his lift pass and done transition.

Strainers = attainers

I need to proof read but I am so cross.

Ah, I am only thinking about A'levels and school sixth forms. Sorry. I had no idea they were entitled to 3 year's education. Thought it all stopped at year 13.

Neutralintelligence - it would hopefully only be a few as CAGs would be used, rather than a random free for all.

I think there will be a lot conversations between schools & sixth forms locally about CAGs and the official results will essentially be ignored.

@hoxt I really hope so. We need honest dialogue to ensure 6th forms aren’t left with lots of students who can’t cope with their courses as much as leaving capable students unable to access suitable courses.

@neutralintelligence

How would it possible for a pupil to do 3 years instead of 2? Will sixth forms and colleges morph to have one third extra capacity and teachers?

It's not uncommon.

Those who don't have the maths and English in previous years start level 1/2 and then do a level 3.

I don't think more students will fail to get a 4 than in previous years. I think the issue is the algorithm can decide the lowest ranked student who would historically get a 2 and who has a CAG of 2 this year will get a U or 1 based on the computer insisting statistically someone must get one.

So number shouldn't be too affected.

It'll more be students getting the course they want if their results are more affected than another students.

Despite having the ehcp ds FE college already wrote to students in June offering a place to those who applied.

There has always been funding for 3 years at sixth form. It’s not uncommon at all to repeat y12.

The biggest impact will be on borderline Level 3 candidates who have to do more Level 2 Courses for a year and those for whom very high GCSEs are a prerequisite for university places.

It will be such a waste of a year redoing GCSEs to go up a grade when you would not have got the low grade anyway.

Our college doesn’t do science GCSEs, my dc needs two supporting science GCSEs at certain levels for Alevels. 😩 Was ill during mocks.That basic eng maths access course would be pointless as dc’s maths result should be good.

They can't go with teachers assessment as there would be rediculous grade inflation. It was going to be 14 per cent at A level so probably similar with GCSE. Going with mocks would be fair but not all schools did them under exam conditions do will not count. Where this has happened this is a school failure not government.

I think schools should have had all A level students in during last 2 weeks of July and GCSE as students during August to sit exams then. Fairest for all as then marks could be standardised to attainment.

No reason GCSE students can't sit exams in September. They only missed 2-3 weeks of teaching as after Easter revision anyway.

I feel much sorrier for next year's cohort and the year after who have missed 5 months of their GCSE or A level course.

Schools with Sixth Form will allow them to move to A level and colleges will allow most students in as won't want to be empty.

How on earth can they sit exams in September. They left school in March and haven’t looked at the curriculum since. My dc has left that school and needs to start new one- in September.

Indeed @FredaFrogspawn

I think borderline Level 3 students will also be affected next year (current Y10) as they are possibly the ones who were less able to learn independently at home. I'm wondering if there will now be more completion for the most popular Level 2 courses and larger Maths and English classes. Hopefully it won't come to that.

OP some A level providers are fussier than others. My local Grammar school would expect very high grades at GCSES, whereas the local further education college asks for 5 grade 4 but you can retake Maths and English.

Ultimately if a child doesn't get a the grades they need they'll have to retake in the Autumn while also studying a Level 2 course and move on to A levels the following year.

@caringcarer. How do you know out the percentage of pupils with grade inflation would be the individual pupils who would have underperformed?
There is no way of knowing. There is no exam paper to mark or re-remark.
Not allowing the grade inflation has meant the pupils selected for grade lowering are not necessarily the pupils who would have underperformed - there is simply no evidence who those pupils who had the grade inflation would be because it is not a grade inflation of an existing grade.
That is why not allowing grade inflation has been deeply unfair and unethical to the random pupils given lower grades.
It took me several days to work that out and it is not being widely reported in the media.

It is absolutely not the fault of schools. They’ve had 6 months to sort this.

If they’re going to be going back to CAG and speaking to old schools surely they need to use CAG.

And it is hard to explain and I have probably failed to explain clearly!

My dc won’t be ready for retakes in Nov.

Head of Sixth Form here. If our year 11 CAGs are lowered by the exam boards then we’ll be flexible about admitting them onto A Levels. We don’t get very many external applicants but if we got large numbers of externals or were a big sixth form college taking from lots of schools then it might be different. Our teacher CAGs are a known quantity and we trust those judgements.

Schools will want good candidates for their courses so that they don’t compromise their results in two years but they’d be foolish not to take kids that their teachers thought should have qualified for A Level/L3 BTEC because the algorithm then marked them down. Even if they are being cynical about it, if a kid’s grades have been lowered then the prior-attainment against which their progress will be measured in two years will be lowered too. If you have a student who you had ranked as the lowest grade 6 and they got put down to a 5 as their “official” grade they are likely to be better for the school’s figures in two years than the kid one above them in the rank order that stayed as a 6.

What they have done is basically give a quota of grades based on previous years of exam results to a school and allocated them to individual pupils as a best-guess.
Those are not the individual results of the current individual pupils because no exam has been sat, there is no real-life paper to excel at or mess up. No paper to remark or use as evidence that a particular pupil underperformed. Yet the pupils have been given lowered marks that are based on the assumption they would have underperformed because every year a certain percentage of pupils do.

@MadameMinimes thank you for the reassurance and explanation

It’s a big sixth form taking from lots of schools.😭😭😭

That doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t be flexible. Kids with results below their CAGs could potentially be good for value-added. Many of these sixth forms will have also had experience of the system this week that may make them very sceptical of the algorithm used to moderate these results. Sorry, I had meant to be reassuring.