Any insight into why LEH's A Level results plummeted this year?

[ThePlacesYouGo]

We were considering LEH for 11+ but already had some reservations (not least a new, untested Head, plus some cultural issues). Then we saw the A Level results which are dramatically down (both on the last comparable, non-Covid years eg 2019 and 2018, and even more drastically down on the past two years) which have really made us pause.

I'd be grateful if any parents with DDs at the school might be able to shed some light. Was it just a "blip" year (I know they do happen, though this one is pretty drastic) or is there something else going on?

Bumping this for the morning crowd...

No experience of LEH but how do the results this year compare to other schools you're interested in? My belief is that all A levels results are down this year and not yet back to pre covid results. I noticed that a university course my DD is going into 2nd year, was in clearing this year offering BBB (or ABC) when DD needed AAB and it's asking for AAB for 2024 so Im guessing they didn't have enough students with the expected results as there weren't any places in clearing last year.

Just visited LEH website to see the results as it is pretty local to us and a consideration for 6th form. I thought the head change was from this term so don't think it is relevant. Other girls' schools nearby did not suffer such a drastic fall, so would be interested to know what happened.

Have local sixth form options changed? Something like a boys sixth form going mixed could have had an effect on their sixth form intake.

Yes, the new head has just started, so those results were the last head's final year (and she had always done a brilliantly job previously, by all accounts).

I'd be surprised if a school lost all its really bright sparks in one year at 6th form. A lot of schools lose up to 20% but other bright sparks join.

The LEH results are down 50% even on 2019 and 2018 which is really quite sizeable.

I noticed a neighbour's daughter ( From LEH) applied for a place in the Sixth Form at Waldegrave School, local state comp which has a better record of getting students into Oxbridge.
LEH has a reputation for being a school for posh girls which I dont think does it self any favours when applying to uni.

@ThePlacesYouGo , I had noticed their drop in results but other top schools had drops too but maybe not so much. I suspect it's the teachers being complacent due to the 3 years of results being easier to achieve and not marking harshly enough which has been an issue at many schools. The exam boards have been harsher than expected with the marking of exams and return to 2019 grading too.

For anyone interested LEH's Astar to B was 83% with 94 candidates, Surbiton High was 90.5% with 100 plus candidates - website doesn't say, Reeds is 87% with 158 candidates and KGS 89.2% with unknown number of candidates.
I would guess perhaps the LEH cohort was smaller than others and a few weak students can reduce the stats.

Which subjects haven't done well, or is it a dip across the board? Is it spiky or generally down?

I am not very much concerned about one single year accident for school selection. GCSE results were still very good.

There is so much movement in girls schools at sixth form that I would only look at gcse results at this stage.

In which case it would be interesting to know how many leave LEH after GCSEs

@Coronateachingagain , there has always been movement, that hasn't changed, LEH starts at age 7 and after 9 years girls want a change and there are many options - Kings Wimbledon, Reeds, KGS etc.

I know on grapevine that many LEH girls missed their firm and insurance uni offers this year so results were a shock to the school as well. Its been a very tough year for this years A level students, with hangover covid impact, not having done real GCSEs, uncertainty, grade boundary increases and teacher complacency. I suspect a mixture of all of those for LEH.

That's interesting @MBappse - I wonder what's been communicated to existing parents re last year's results.

The dip is way way more than any other comparable school, even aiming off for covid / teacher-assessed years, and looking back to 2018/2019.

The last six years results are on their website:

https://www.lehs.org.uk/about/examination-results

I'm sure still a lot of people from SW London would still apply for this school regardless anyway. It is oversubscribed every year and not sure how the 7 years away A levels statistics for one year would affect the parents decision.

Their latest GCSE still one of the best in that area...

No knowledge of LEH specifically, but generally Prefer to look at GCSE results as a guide of the school quality - at A level the teachers only have 18 months to build on the foundations from the previous school. I think there's a fairly high turnover for sixth for in single sex schools as many want to leave for a co-ed environment and others want to join for the more peaceful all-girls environment. Amongst friends with kids in private school many are considering a move to state for 6th form as they think it will give them a better chance for university applications, and foundations already laid through great teaching up to GCSE.

Did LEH mark the exams themselves in the past 2-3 years and this is the first year they were externally moderated due to covid? Perhaps they over marked the past few years as several private schools are seeing drops and overinflated own marking during covid is cited to be the reason.

I think GCSE most accurate measurement of the school's academic quality

More precisely the intake academic quality

Did anyone hear Katharine Birbalsingh on the Today programme earlier this week call out independent schools for not achieving 100% nines at GCSEs.
Some independent schools want to scrap GCSEs. Yet LEH is super selective and all their pupils should be achieving top grades at GCSE but don't.
There was massive cheating by independent schools during COVID and teachers assessed student exams.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4483332-Grade-inflation-and-leading-independent-schools-in-London-and-beyond
It will take a long time for exam boards and universities to forgive the huge grade inflation and to trust these top schools again.

@circacircle the latest GCSE 2023 is not selfmark, looking at the website LEH got 94% 9-7 and 82% 9-8, this will put the school in the top range of the selective schools. Only a handful of schools do better than this.

Not object your criticism on schools cheating on GCSE during covid years but to be frank a lot of state school cheating too, such as Tiffin girls was on the top 20 grade inflation schools.

Also, Katharine Birbalsingh, the head of MCS, it is a nonselective school, when her school have good GCSE years the school publish the GCSE result right away but somehow not this year? She start criticize other schools?

I think the all 9s at GCSE is impossible for any school even those that withdraw candidates from subjects if they are underperforming (and I haven't heard of LEH being associated with this). I think that it must be a particular challenge for the selective schools like LEH that go through from 7 (or younger) as they effectively pick half their cohort at age 6/7.

DD just left LEH having had a surprise result at A level - two grades were bang on as predicted A star but third was shockingly a C- thankfully got insurance but not firm, which did happen across her year group and I would add many area schools in her friend group locally including those named above. Honestly, though, we were all surprised as well about the LEH results across the year. Interesting that area schools actually fared much better! It is true that some leave LEH at sixth form, but I think only say 15 tops (someone else can correct me). What I will say is my daughter absolutely loved her time at LEH and felt the teaching to be excellent. Possibly just a weaker cohort of girls- ? They did work hard but did they work hard enough as a student group, generally? Also of course they had no experience actually taking exams (true across other schools also though so not really a good point to raise here as standard for this cohort.). I am confident the next cohort and following will indeed achieve excellent results. Also, I am certain that teachers will be all over the students this year to make up for this slip last year!

Wel they can blame Covid and the fact that their Uxbridge results were so bad too on trend. As other SW London schools results were good as usual and Uxbridge intake did not shift.

I don't think you can 'blame' the intake, as it's such a selective school. And tbh, if it's such a great school, with such great quality teaching & opportunities, it should be able to bring up any lower level intake students to the highest level anyway, otherwise what are you paying for?! Can't blame stricter grade boundaries either, as all schools were in the same boat, and it only seems to have affected LEH locally. School obviously predicted higher grades than were achieved in many cases...and so the only tenable reason seems to me that they just took their eye off the ball...