What a screwup at NLCS

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Anyone else read this?

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/24/north-london-collegiate-school-investigated-a-level-grades-2021-malpractice-allegations

Appalling stupidity and lack of professional integrity. No wonder the Head has resigned.

I have not flounced. I have been steadfast in defending a wonderful school. My daughter certainly never had an eating disorder, was not pressured there and had a lovely time. There is a big issue these days with social media/websites where people not surprisingly get views from others. However those views are not always accurate. Go and look around a school. Talk to current parents. Make up your own mind.

We were equally happy with Habs girls by the way - we had a daughter at each up to age 18. There are a lot of very good schools in London. I know someone with girls at St Paul's too. You cannot go to wrong at any of those 3 and no doubt others too.

Xenia, when was it that your DD left (approximately)? Iirc, your children are all working or post first degree now? Do you think it possible that the school might have changed over the intervening period?

Apologies if you have a much younger daughter who I have overlooked / misremembered.

I agree with you Xenia. I am bemused that some parents have the time and energy to be so interested in a school where their children don’t attend.

My DD2 did A levels in 2021 in our local state school. She and her peers sat exams under full exam conditions

No they didn't. They may have sat exams so the school could set grades (as my dds school did), but they weren't under "full exam conditions". There were no exams.

Schools change. A school's culture tends to be driven from the top so all it takes is a change of leadership to change the whole feel and ethos of a school. Xenia often says that her children left school a very long time ago so I don't know how she knows that it is still a wonderful school without relying on the views of other, which she herself points out are not always accurate. I see a red flag in the attitudes displayed by many of the parents on this thread. Why the need to be so defensive if all is so amazing?

@mbell thank you so much for being open and honest about what your DD was instructed to tell prospective parents who visited NLCS. It's refreshing to know the truth. Thanks again.

She was told explicitly beforehand that she was not to mention the amount of homework or downplay it if asked by any parents.

Honestly ladies. Have a think about what you are doing, many of you are spending time on a forum with complete strangers, putting down a school you absolutely no experience of. I am sure you must have better things to do with your time. My daughter has shown prospective parents around and has never been told anything not to say.

Could it be possible that the respective DDs were in different year groups and maybe some were told by the school to downplay homework to prospective parents and the other was not? Just a thought.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks

Given the level of selectivity of this school, the reality is that the only way a child would not achieve A-A in their A-levels would be if something went wrong on the day somehow. It does happen in normal times, but it would be hard for a teacher to predict to whom it happens. It just happens in normal times. The NLCS teachers were probably correct in saying all these girls were predicted A-A, they can hardly mark down 5-10% of girls to a B just because in a normal year there are always some who for some reason have a bad day.

When you read the detailed article, they didn't actually find any case of willfull mismarking, all these top grades could be justified which is not surprising given that only very able girls attend this school, especially in Sixth Form!

A close friend's daughter just left NLCS and is now enjoying her time at a US Ivy League school. She is happy, polite, well adjusted, very impressive, has always been happy at the school and has a lovely group of friends. I do agree that the level of criticisim of the school might be slightly overdone here and in the press.

they can hardly mark down 5-10% of girls to a B just because in a normal year there are always some who for some reason have a bad day.

In schools that did NOT inflate their results systematically, this was pretty much exactly what they did. They were scrupulous in using every possible source of evidence to identify not ‘the best possible’ but ‘the most likely’ result and referring back to previous years to gain a realistic view.

My grammar school teachers in my language oral exams mouthed the words to weaker students. One made an aeroplane gesture to remind a student to say a sentence we'd been pre trained to shove in to enhance our marks.
Schools with top marks do whatever it takes.
I remember moving over to the local college for a levels and realising what a disadvantage you were at when an external examiner walked in to hold my a level oral exams.
This whole process for marking exams using teachers was ripe for corruption. It certainly won't just be private schools doing it. I hope every school with a discrepancy during the covid lockdowns gets investigated.

@Greatly they covered the full A level syllabus. They were sat in the usual exam hall with invigilators. They were locally marked but also externally moderated. I'm aware not all schools worked this way but ours did. The grades given were earned, not just given, hence the lack of difference with 2019.

Yes mine (private school) did the same. Grades were given by teachers, as yours were. Your dcs did not take A level exams, even though they tried to replicate the experience. I hope your dcs did well, but it's silly to somehow insist your dcs actually did A levels when others didn't.

Moderation didn't mean that every A level was marked externally!

@Greatly I'm not saying they sat A levels, but they didn't have the grade inflation that many private sector schools had. I think we need to be honest and admit that this was a bigger problem in the private sector.

Yes I think it probably was, hard to prove though.

@NLCSmummy -I am curious -
why do you keep calling her by her first name? Do you know her personally?

The rules for TAGs were quite clear. Teachers had to give students the best grade they had evidence for. If a school did not have much better grades in 2021 than any other year they were not following the rules.

Then I suggest you complain to those schools about not following the rules the government set out for TAGs.

We've spoken on multiple occasions.