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?

Universities look at where applicants did their GCSE's, not their A Levels. They're not daft.

Just Oxbridge or more than that?

Typical a few factors,

The school ur DC did GCSE, what is the attainment performance of that school (nothing about fee paying vs state - selective grammar and private, good comprehensive will be in the same bucket, low performing school is on the other)

where your DC live, postcode area of the neighbourhood, what is the social demographic how many people has degree level education etc.

if your DC had eligible for FSM since age 11.
if your DC has experience in care someone else.

All of the competitive unis look at contextual factors. If they have more candidates with the required predicted grades (or entrance exam results) than places available they need to choose between them somehow, so they try to make sure they are recruiting from a range of backgrounds. They know some young people change school at 16+ so they look at the bigger picture, including where they did their GCSEs.

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?

They may officially be non-selective, but everything about it, from the teaching style to the uniform and behaviour policies would put off many local families. It’s designed for tiger-parented children, and does very well for them, but it’s not a non-selective school in any real sense. And their selective sixth form has higher entry requirements than most top independent schools.

I think some people need to stop making excuses for these results. It is fee paying school and they have to produce results and they simply didn’t. There are also 20 girls who are waiting to go next year as they obviously didn’t get the grades. I find it hard to believe all of them decided to take a year off. It looks like that they lost their space. The excuse that top universities do not take from private schools or LEH is too posh is rubbish as kings, Hampton, spgs or St. Paul’s university destinations have not changed this year with still high intake to top universities.

If they have more candidates with the required predicted grades (or entrance exam results) than places available they need to choose between them somehow, so they try to make sure they are recruiting from a range of backgrounds.

It's also partly because they know that students who have done well in tougher circumstances are a better bet. They have achieved something more difficult and have demonstrated desirable qualities that DC from more privileged backgrounds haven't.

"The excuse that top universities do not take from private schools or LEH is too posh is rubbish as kings, Hampton, spgs or St. Paul’s university destinations have not changed this year with still high intake to top universities."

Not sure Hampton, but all the rest of the Schools you compared had a more competitive intake in the first place.. So it is less about which schools are too posh but more about which schools are more selective with students and families that would like the competive environment in the first place.

@PreplexJ Have a look at Hampton and G&L they are far better results too. People make excuses that time has changed and that is why LEH oxbridge and London university intake is low but that is not the case. They simply not doing as well and they used to few years back with the same portion of junior kids. Something is not right. I have yet to meet more than handful of parents who say their DD or them love the school.

Just quick scan the oxbridge number for GL and LEH last year (I can't see this year). They are not much different it seems, apart from GL has high proportion on on the humanities subjects?

I don't have enough knowledge or parents acquaintance on both schools to make any judgements on experience. Just observation on the public information available.

@PreplexJ you can look at 2022 for LEh ,Hampton and G&l. This year is available as well for all schools. Hampton way better and G&l is to top Ivy schools in USA. Surbiton high did just as well as Leh and is far less selective. I think the excuse that schools make for their lack of top destination is rubbish and they need to face reality that they are doing something wrong. If it was just to do with poshness or private schools then spgs at Paul’s and kings would be effected far worth and they are not at all. Alevel results being so bad at LEH last year , there is no excuse at all. As all other private schools do not have the same drop after Covid. Let’s stop making excuses.

University destination esp for Ivy league schools is more to do with parent and cohorts outlook. LEH doesn't seem to be a school of which the parents sent their daughters to US.

The A level result does seem to be bad this year. The 2 years ago GCSE results are self assessment grades you cant really tell the cohort ability and how it compare across other schools.

Also why LEH GCSE is not suffer the same drop this year?

No incentive to make any excuse, but I do think one should read more than the headline to get more context.

@PreplexJ do you work at LEH by any chance ??GCSE results in all medium selective schools are good. Just look at Putney high and KGS. The real test is Alevel and university destination which LEH did badly on both accounts and university destination is getting worse every year.

No the school is too far from me (or too posh as some other people said).

Also all schools sixth form has about 30% student turn around and some school has hard GCSE requirement to allow students to sit while some other are more relax.

LEH had better result than Putney high and KGS in 2019.

Do you happen to work in some rival school for LEH by any chance @Westlondonmom22

@PreplexJ no I am just stating the facts and doing my research for my DD for 2024. Numbers and facts don’t lie…

You judge a school based on one year A level statistics but wiredly not GCSE result, and these are the results that is 7 years away from your DD entrance, good luck with that.

This year was a difficult year to predict grades. The grade boundary info wasn’t released until after predicted grades were sorted. Since both unis and schools were expecting the same leniency as 2022 most unis were scrambling to fill places because they had made offers based on 2022.
DS’s school actually did better than 2019 but because of inflated offers the school were panicking the night before. There was great relief when most got into first choice despite not achieving grade offers. Those that didn’t ended up with second choice or were successful in clearing.
DS didn’t apply last year ( lots of reasons) but will be applying this year. The ucas tutor has said that he shouldn’t limit himself to courses he meets the grades for since so many unis were offering much lower grades in clearing.
It has been probably the worst year for school and exam disruption. The pandemic significantly impacted on both GCSEs and A levels.
Going forward, with the economic downturn, universities are going to struggle to fill courses. Although independent education is unpopular with mn it does prepare you, as parents, for the economic impact. DS will be responsible for his tuition fees and loan but we will pay his accommodation fees. If he feels he needs more money then he will have to find a part time job.

@PreplexJ good luck to you too and your work at LEH. If you actually read what I wrote I told you destination has been getting worse every year. For someone who doesn’t work or has a Dd at the school you seem so eager to get involved defending the school. All I was doing was pointing out was let’s not make excuses for some of these private schools. You made it all about LEH and defending it to death. Yes if I am paying high fees these things matter to me like university destinations.

It seems like it is you who claimed LEH so bad compared to other schools. Maybe someone don't want other parents to apply to boost your DD's chance too? It is hard to judge the intention on MN these days.

@PreplexJ ok!!! This has now become a harassment . Again read my posts that it was about general rubbish that private schools give. I will not respond to your comments again. My dd doesn’t need me to do this as we will not apply to this school. Thanks!!

Harassment as in: claiming someone genuinely provide with comments on a school with data and reasons, if not the same as your opinions, then must be working for this school?

@PrePlexJ "but to be frank a lot of state school cheating too, such as Tiffin girls was on the top 20 grade inflation schools."

I'm pretty sure you mean Tiffin School here (the boys' school). Not Tiffin Girls'.

Tiffin Girls' percentages 2019 onwards are here: https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/tiffingirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/26120759/2022-GCSE-AL-Results-w-remarks.pdf
Looking at the data, it's impossible to suggest that Tiffin Girls' inflated grades.

Tiffin School (Boys) on the other hand...
There's an article about Tiffin Boys here: https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/london-state-school-number-a-23026340
with their numbers.

Incidentally, out of the 50 schools described as inflating grades in that article, 48 are private schools.

@DandelionDahlia you probably right is tiffin not tiffin girls. The link below listed some of the state schools who got some of the highest inflation. All grammar such as Tiffin boys / sutton grammar / Pete...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10482061/Private-schools-gamed-Covid-double-grades-investigation-finds.html

To be fair, as the article points out, the only schools that published full results on their websites for the Covid TAG/CAG years were those participating in the Times Parent Power process - a very small number of mostly private schools. The vast majority of schools didn't publish their results, and the DfE didn't publish them either.

... just to add, I have a DC currently in Tiffin Sixth Form, so I know how they do their UCAS predicted grades - its all very mathematical and systematic, based on scaled scores, and comparing with the performance of several previous cohorts. I imagine they used the same process for CAGs, but I don't know for sure. It does lead to optimistic predictions (which are encouraged by UCAS), but the rationale is fair enough - if they have x students falling into the top y% of the cohort, where y is a range where a significant number of students got A's in previous years, they will predict all of those x students an A. (The alternative would be to make a subjective judgement as to which of those x students are most likely to get the A*s, which would probably be unfair and innacurate).