Are more of you planning to move your DC from private to state for 6th form now?

[WomensRightsRenegade]

Apologies but just wondering this? My son is going into year 10 at a school he loves, but we are realising that even with a generous bursary, the 20pc VAT will mean it’s impossible for him to stay for 6th form.

I know it’s a transition phase anyway, but he will be very upset to leave as historically not many kids at the school have left then.

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

@combinationpadlock I don't know where you get your ideas from, about standards but our non-selective independent got 100% of pupils through gcse Eng Lang. and maths last year, and are expecting to do the same this year. No-one is allowed to fail those essentials and teachers put individual support in place to make sure pupils get every help.

And our music and drama rooms are terrapins (remember them!)

So maybe rethink your rather odd assumptions because you are wrong at least some of the time..

Eh? Nothing wrong with IGCSEs they are internationally recognised that's all.

I'm really surprised how many people don't understand these are a cheaper easier version, designed to be accessible to students in countries with no educational resources.

But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given who is selling them to parents, and why

IGCSEs aside please again can you answer my Q on how teaching in private schools is lower standard than state schools.
Or is that just your own prejudice?

aside from the fact half of the students in an independent school exam hall are taking an easier exam than their peers in a state school exam hall???

Do you understand what you are asking? cos I dont

Please can you give me the exact figures to prove your assertion because I've just checked DDs school results from last year and 8% did IGCSE, the rest did GCSE.
You seem to be hung up on iGCSE as being the only evidence that teaching in private schools is inferior to state. Sorry, I just don't accept that.
If you are going to make such sweeping, damning statements then please have the evidence to support your opinion

I think you are a little off. Some of the most selective schools in the UK use IGCSEs. They do it because the grade is based on a final exam rather than coursework. This frees up time to go through the curriculum at pace, and then do a lot of extra extension work.

GCSEs are recently based less on coursework than they used to be, so maybe this will change.

But the choice of IGCSEs was never because they were easier. That’s just nonsense. Schools that were achieving A*s as the modal A level grade and sending large cohorts to Oxbridge did not need an easy short cut for GCSEs.

employers / universities /colleges just count them as GCSEs what's the problem? And as someone who works in state and private schools, and has looked at the course content of both, I would disagree with your assessment anyway.

Of course they are easier. That is why they are banned in state schools. Because they don't reach the standard required to be counted as a GCSE...and yes, no course work is part of their design, to be run cheaply and simply.

If they were equivalent to a standard GCSE, then state school wouldn't be banned from using them, would they.

We used to teach both side by side, and give pupils the choice - and the iGCSE was cheaper to teach and easier to pass. But that is why they were banned.

If people want to have a debate about the merits of private schooling in general, why don't you go start a thread on it? OP asked for advice on how to handle the prospect of her DS not being able to stay on at his current school past GCSEs when most of his year-mates likely will.

Sorry your thread has been so badly derailed, OP.

Because some posters started making ridiculous sweeping statements that were blatantly not true

A lot of people here have really fallen for the marketing from indies in a really massive way.

If the iGCSE was equivalents to a standard GCSE then they wouldn't be banned in state schools ,would they.

They are set by the same exam board, and based on the same curriculum - why would the government find one acceptable to be taught in state, and the other not. Because they are a lower standard.

It isn't even a dispute! It is general knowledge.

I do still teach a little bit of iGCSE in private tutoring. ( for indie school students) - much easier to teach than standard GCSE. Because I don't need any resources - that is how it is designed

Then ignore them, or post your opinion once and move on. Their statements weren't relevant to OP's question but arguing about them for multiple pages just makes it worse.

To be fair 99% of MN posts get derailed, that's what happens when you have an open forum. You can't police what other posters say

This is utter nonsense in my subject (maths).

Based on their statement on another thread it looks like they have no idea about education anyway so any comments can be safety ignored

@Inthemosquitogarden "that, and the fact that their university grade offers will be lower if coming from our local state college vs their private school)"

Do check whether this is true.

This is categorically not true. Presumably you aren't telling the truth about what you do.

Please stop this silly trolling.

You mean like your discription of state school not having homework for years 7-8 and other insane untrue descriptions? Because that was blatantly not true.

If it’s a heavily oversubscribed subject, then being on the Bristol contextual offer school list is no guarantee of an offer at all, even with predicted grades above the standard offer.

Thanks but I know my son would have a pretty much guaranteed place at the local 6th form, even after all the internal pupils have taken up their places. There are still quite a few external places and we live very close to the school. As I said,
the best local college allocates places via lottery

i don’t know if there is any evidence that that’s true. In any case the fact that a state school teacher has many more pupils in their class and many more behavioural issues to deal with, can cancel out any superior teaching ability.

But the state sixth form near us is definitely excellent - I suppose in most cases the more behaviourally-challenged won’t be there for A level
study.

You honestly think private school teachers don’t have better resources? If a pupil is causing disruption they will be asked to leave. It’s almost impossible to do the same in state school