Private school to ditch GCSEs, write own exams

[noblegiraffe]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/gcses-private-schools-london-qualification-latymer-school-b1106686.html

Not entirely sure what to make of this. Latymer Upper (I'm not really up on private schools so don't know how fancy it is) is planning to ditch GCSEs and create its own assessments to 'free up teaching time'.

I guess if it's a super-selective type school they'd be expecting all the kids to go onto A-levels anyway so aren't worried about losing GCSEs, but what of kids who want to go elsewhere? How recognised would their portfolio be?

Also, we know from covid just how good some private schools are at marking their own homework so how would anyone know if standards were being maintained?

I'm surprised that a school has enough staffing capacity to set up its own exam system tbh.

A lot of the kids are tutored to get in and I presume, tutored to maintain the excellent results. I wonder how tutors will cope with this new so called advanced curriculum which pushes these kids even further.

But even if the student gets 3x A* at a level or top IB grades there will be courses closed off to them without a science gcse (or recognised equivalent)

The course I teach on requires ABB, I regularly turn down applicants with no science gcse but they have the required UCAS points and seem surprised that the ucas points aren’t enough. Obviously if they have done a science A level we will forget the gcse requirement but a lot don’t do science a level.

Is your programme a science related course though?

Pushy parents would love to see this, they can forgot the GCSE and focus on the next level parent competitions - think US model.

Hahaha.

I’m a primary teacher - with an Oxbridge PhD and educated before that at a very selective private boarding school.

One of my school’s teaching assistants has an Oxbridge degree.

It’s extremely odd to assume that the very able and very well-educated don’t value education….

So they will have 4 years ++ study timeframe of A levels instead of cramming into 2 years. The selective schools are doing GCSEs level English books at Year 7 and 8. Some top maths sets are already GCSEs level at 11 years old and those not will get 9s at later years so their lower sets are still high achievement. The attainment gap will be huge from the top selective schools to those without the resources or parental support.

It says in the article that they'll still do maths and English so they're not completely mad.

Many private schools already enter their pupils for IGCSE English language rather than GCSE, so they don't have to achieve the same standard as pupils in state schools.

No, well they won't get in will they without a science gcse ?

Fascinating, I've just looked up their GCSE results. From the impression some on here are giving, GCSEs are just beneath the kids at this super-selective, heavily oversubscribed school.

Yet there's a pretty wide spread of results...I think Katharine Birbalsingh might have a point when she says that she'd get better results out of these kids if they went to Michaela.

That book's an interesting read (and is on offer at 99p on Kindle this month) but it's specifically about girls' boarding schools up to 1979, but mostly earlier, and most of them weren't aiming for an academic education for daughters. Private girls' day schools (or grammars/grant aided schools) would have offered a much more academic education at that time than most of the schools described in the book, with better preparation for external exams.

"Yet there's a pretty wide spread of results"

What makes you think that from the attached result?

A national baccalaureate doesn't need creating, there already is a really good IB middle years programme curriculum in existence.

For some reason it hasn't been as popular as the IB diploma (16-18), but it's so much more well rounded and less prescriptive than gcses.

@hammersmithgal

I've had to prove my GCSEs for jobs despite a levels, a degree and a postgraduate diploma- they wanted to see I had 5 GCSEs but I have lost my certificates (in house moves) and wouldn't budge so I didn't get the job (neither my old school nor that exam board exists now, i can't be alone in loosing bits of card???

The numbers in the table I attached make me think that, @PreplexJ

Given how people have been banging on about how selective it is, and how few kids get in, top set maths at my school had a better set of grades with much bigger class sizes and a third of the funding. 🤷‍♀️ That table certainly doesn't make me think that GCSEs are redundant for those kids.

Is your school selective? How many nonselective secondary school you can find in the country with a top set let's say top 30% less wide spread result than this? I bet is none.

Even for selective secondary you won't find many schools with the results much better than this.

People are 'banging on' about it being selective, because it is, at age 11, in terms of the ridiculous numbers of kids in London applying for all these schools. That obviously doesn't mean all children there are guaranteed to get 9 in everything. Some may be stronger at Maths, others in English, or Drama or Music.
Some may have SEN, some may struggle with exams, have family issues, have just arrived from Ukraine ( more than a few in the last year or so).
A lot of people seem very put out by the schools decision- not sure why as it's not affecting your children. There's about 180 kids in a year so not many in the grand scheme of things although I suspect others will follow.

Those results are really interesting to me, as a parent of a child at another selective school nearby. They bear no comparison. When you talk to other parents in the local area they do tend to say 'oh, all these schools get similar results' but that clearly isn't true based on that table.

As it happens, I didn't send my child to the school I did because of the percentage of 9s or whatever, but because of the opportunity to do a lot of stuff outside the curriculum in lesson time and because it is very liberal (probably the exact opposite of Michaela).

No, my school isn't selective which is why I was comparing my school's top set maths results with their maths results.

That obviously doesn't mean all children there are guaranteed to get 9 in everything.

One of their entrance exams is a maths exam so clearly they are filtering on maths ability to some extent. From what I understand, it's likely that those kids entering the exams have been heavily tutored. And yet...I'm not overwhelmed. Michaela's maths results are way more impressive.

Those results are really interesting to me, as a parent of a child at another selective school nearby. They bear no comparison.

In what way?

The results at my child's school are an awful lot better.

Bit isn't that the school that gets almost the top results in the country? Once you take out the 'top' 4 or 5 they are all fairly similar ish.

These London super selective private schools do bear very similar results, if you take out the "selective" factor (most school has pre-school will go straight through) - all you end up is few percentage point (usually less than 10%) differences.

@PutYourBackIntoit it is so disappointing how few schools in the uk use the ib middle years programme, which appears far more interesting and robust than gcse. Unfortunately none of the schools near us offer it, despite many offering IB.

I can see the utility in having national standards for math and English, but having the entire curriculum oriented around prescribed exams results in a stultifying educational experience. The absence of SATS was a big draw for us to dc current primary, as it allows so much more freedom to create an interesting and stimulating educational experience. I get depressed thinking about moving to senior school - an alternative to gcse would be incredibly appealing for us.

It's a non-selective state school with nearly a third of its kids on free school meals.

You're suggesting that an incredibly selective private school with three times as much funding couldn't possibly hope to compete?

The plot thickens.