GCSE in year admission in Harrow

[SuratNuJaman]

For a kid starting their GCSE year, can he/she travel from Europe and join an English Government run school a month before GCSE exams. Does the Government/Council have a "duty of care" which requires them to place the kid in a school and get them to take thir GCSE exams?

Is there any cut off deadline that the kid must be in a school by say December, for them to take their GCSE exams?

Happy to read legislation myself. If someone here has Administrative experience in a Council with admissions, would love to hear from them. The council for the kid will be Harrow.

The scheme is not what the parents are trying to circumvent, there is no such scheme in place. It is the selection process where a computer algorithm seems to be tweaked in favour of state school sat GCSE exams. The parental knowledge seems to be the inner workings of this algo.

If it’s only ‘tweaked in favour of state school sat GCSE exams’ then that isn’t ruling out privately educated kids.

Let this poor child do as well as they can in the setting that they are familiar with, taking the exact exams that their current school has been preparing them for.

What you’re looking at doing is ludicrous -setting them up to not achieve their full potential and so unlikely to get a place on whatever scheme it is anyway.

You're arguing a nonsensical point. They're trying to insert their child over and above those it's actually intended to recognise - if the weighting for state school grades is greater than private (and the programmer hasn't already added a subroutine/function where date of admission is taken into account to avoid this sort of cynical manipulation from the mosr advantaged people) then they are knowingly attempting to get their child a place based upon subterfuge.

"-setting them up to not achieve their full potential and so unlikely to get a place on whatever scheme it is anyway."

The situation is the kid is already capable in the chosen field. It is the silliness which crept in the system, unbeknown to the organisaton.

In the U.K. it would be parallel to the stories in media "Person applies for 300 jobs, never hears back from a single recruiter". This is because a computer discarded the person before a human got a chance to look at or meet the Person.

Yes they are, and so is the programmer who has inserted the code which causes "silent rejections".

Well as kid isnt going to be aiming at a UK uni (becuse i guarantee you none have anything remotely resembling that system), I’m not sure we can help.

wonder if they are aware private and state GCSEs are the same…

If they’re so capable, why didn’t they move to a state school for year 10 ready to sit the exams in year 11?

What scheme is this? It sounds like it could be ideal for my high achieving fully state educated child who would tick all the right boxes on the algorithm by the sounds of it!!

I suggest the parents and child spend their time finding a suitable route into the child's chosen field without trying to pretend their privately educated child has had a state education.

1 month at a state school or sitting an exam at a state school is not a state education. The objective here seems to be to steal an academic place from a genuinely eligible state educated UK based child. Disgusting behaviour.

Is anyone else finding the OP's detached writing style rather odd?

Very much so - "the kid"!

I was thinking that English possibly isn’t their first language. Perhaps I’m being too kind though.

And even if state school ticks the boxes what about the parents at university box, free school meals, ethnic minorities etc etc.

Sounds more like a ranking system so others with a genuine state education score slightly higher - or they're placed into separate categories where offers are made to the highest scoring from one category first and if there are places left after that, they start on the highest ranked candidates on the other.

Something that no one has yet pointed out is that even if you sit your exam in one particular state school, for the purpose of gathering national statistics etc you are judged as having attended the school you started Y10 at. This was put in place to prevent schools from massaging results by excluding children before sitting GCSE exams. So even if you sat the exam in a state school in Harrow after arriving in April (which is doubtful because you can't register for GCSE exams that late), the certificate will likely still name the school the child attended in Y10.

There are many checks and balances in place to prevent abuse of the system as you are suggesting you want to do.

Also, residence isn't based only on council tax. It will also include other information from HMRC and evidence of foreign earnings have to be declared when applying as a "home" or "foreign" student for FE and HE.

Decent results would trump any ”advantage” of registering as a state school pupil. If a student does not meet basic entry criteria they won’t make the cut anyway, AI or otherwise. What is the plan for sixth form?

I’m still confused as to any course or occupation that requires state school, that in its self would be discriminatory. You can weight entries for disadvantage but even my DD’s programme didn’t ban private school educated students, they just required more points.

if there is a desire to switch to the state sector then as soon as possible is crucial and I fear the disruption in doing this may affect their overall performance in said exams because exam boards vary and controlled assessments/coursework will be partially done already. Without the full facts I cannot say you are wrong definitively however I think it’s highly likely you have misunderstood the selection process, there are programmes aimed at very specific groups of very disadvantaged students but simply switching schools would not make a difference, my dc (completely state educated, low achieving school in special measures and low income postcode) still didn’t qualify as we ourselves are educated and have an income too high

Ah, so they want to game the system to get a place on Civil Service Fast Stream & internships or think they can get access to NHS internships. That's nice, given the idea is to level the playing field for genuine applicants.

Hopefully the computer will say no.

I can’t work out if @SuratNuJaman is talking about their own DC or someone else’s tbh. Either way I agree “the kid” is a very odd designation for a child or student.

@SuratNuJaman have I got this right? You (or someone you know) want to move their DC into a state school in ? April of year 11 and force (unlikely) the school to allow them to sit GCSEs there. This is in order for the child to access some programme that is aimed (in a “woke” manner hmm) at widening participation and offering opportunities perhaps in a specific university degree programme; BC it is a WP programme, it favours state-school-educated students, hence the plan by the student’s parents?

Firstly, that’s an appalling way to try to game the system if the DC is currently in private education and thus already has a massive advantage over state-school educated DC.

Secondly I imagine it will backfire as, as others have said, if the DC is currently working towards IGCSEs then their coursework will be for nothing (there is no coursework in any GCSEs apart from things like DT and drama) and the work they have done will probably have the wrong focus (not the same texts studied, not the same topics covered), so I am guessing their GCSE results will be lower than they would be if they stayed where they are currently – thus any advantage accruing from attendance in the WP programme, if the devious dodge even works, will surely be negated in terms of their future progress by lower grades at GCSE.

BTW woke means being aware of political and social unfairness. Most of us would agree that being woke is a good thing, not an insult.

You do realise that the 2 schemes I mentioned above still do not guarantee "the kid" a place? Private schools = 7%, state schools = 93%. There are still far more excellent young people who have thrived in the state sector, achieve outstanding results and still face competition.

I feel pity for "the kid" if you are willing to jeopardise their future to chase a unicorn.

There are a few things. Firstly the registration deadlines. Secondly the school would have to agree and would be unlikely to unless they thought the child will do well.

i’d find out what the deadline for registration is, and find an unsubscribed state school and ask if he can join.

Otherwise you’ll have to pay privately.

clearly when you arrive he’ll still be of compulsory school age and not be in school. Could try the FAP process.

Thank you.

English is not our first language. And we are staying away using ChatGPT.

Worth knowing "you are judged as having attended the school you started Y10 at."

My apologies.

Hope not helpful.

Knowing the skullduggery in the selection algo is helpful.