IB diploma funding cancelled for state school sixth forms - year 11 applicants

[Wonderbread77]

My son in year 11 was hoping to apply for a IB diploma state school for sixth form as first choice. But now it seems the government has made a sudden decision to cancel funding for the IB diploma for state schools starting for those entering sixth form next year.

The state schools impacted seem to be scrambling now on how they adjust for sixth form applications. School 1 has insisted this doesn’t impact their ability to offer the IB diploma and School 2 removed any uncertainty by announcing they will be moving to A levels instead of the IB diploma for year 11 applicants, Moving to A levels would be a big change for the school 2 and they have no track record for A levels. But I don’t understand how school 1 insists it’s moving ahead with IB next year would be able to sustain that without funding?

What should he do now? Try for the school 1? Revisit other schools with trusted experience of A levels? Or take a chance that the IB sixth form school 2 will transition fine to A levels? I think they will lose some good teachers to private IB schools.

https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/labour-cuts-funding-for-state-school-ib-diplomas

To be accurate, the Gov hasn’t withdrawn funding for schools that run IB - they’ve withdrawn the TOP UP funding the IB attracted. Schools can still offer IB if they want but they’ll get the standard rate of funding.

Thank you. Was the top up amount significant? I assume it would cost more for a school to support each student covering IB as it’s more subjects.

£2k according to the article you posted…..

😊Thank you.

That would be a big transition for any current IB school then. I think he will steer clear of it and stick to an A level sixth form. How disappointing.

It was 20%, but only if the student achieved 28 points which is the equivalent of Bs at A Level.

Really disappointing and I can’t understand the rationale for this, beyond desperate penny pinching?

I am really surprised to see in the article referenced by the OP that just 55 state schools in the UK teach IB,including 20 that offer the IB diploma. So overall the number of students choosing to study for the qualification in the state sector is minuscule. 76 private institutions offering the IB sounds realistic. Seems that despite the £2k per pupil yop up funding available that state schools gave chosen for the most part to stick to the A level format.

Such a shame the IB isn't more widely promoted/ offered. Such an excellent course.

But that doesn't justify removing the additional funding. Independent schools will now, going forwards, be the only providers of IB. Once the additional funding stops and the current cohorts have completed then I would expect to see most schools dropping the IB offer. In the climate of schools having to cut budgets and teachers, the IB will be an "unaffordable luxury".

It is levelling down in action.

You have to view this along with the other schemes Labour have ended, schemes which were trying to do something to address educational aspiration for state school kids: Access to Latin, Advanced maths, access to STEM courses, the Eton Star academy partnerships across the country, computer and language hubs etc.
It's all part of a bigger picture of reducing the offer in state schools.

I have just googled and apparently there are 3456 state secondary schools in England. If only 20 offer IB at Diploma level that really shows how A levels are the dominant player at that stage of education .

Op I am wondering if I can guess which schools you are referring to. If it is then I have a lot of experience of the one that will be going to a levels. They are a fantastic school with amazing teachers and brilliant leadership. Their gxse results are very good but they really prioritise the mental health of the students. So I would be confident they will run a levels very well and to an extremely high standard. But I get that you might be nervous. The other a level options I just don’t think are as good locally. But of course you might not be talking about the same geographical area!

And? Why shouldn't we have choice? The majority do A levels, fine that's great. But maybe if their schools offered IB they would prefer to do that? The fact is that most do A levels because they haven't been given the option of IB.
Getting rid of choice is never good and should never be celebrated.

I used to work at a state school which teaches the IB Diploma.

in many ways it does not fit well with the degree structure that English universities use. There’s a particular issue with maths and science degrees as they often expect specialised a levels and therefore IB students scramble to catch up.

the IB is good for other degrees.

it’s also (much like a levels) only really appropriate for the higher achievers (the IB have a careers programme similar to BTECs which is very rarely offered).

i don’t think the removal of additional funding makes any difference to the aspirations of state schools.

The choice has been there but clearly not very many schools have chosen to offer IB even though the top up funding has been available in the past. Why not? If the IB is so great why havent more parents pressurised their school to offer it ? That's the question I would be asking. I live in a Grammar school county. Not one of the 6 Grammar schools offers IB. They are all good schools ,they know the A level results will be good. They don't need to offer the IB.

Thsnk you for your insight. That is very helpful,especially regarding the issues with maths and science. It certainly explains to me why the schools where I live with strong Oxbridge cohorts concentrate on A levels.

Most do A levels (do they - plenty do BTECs and other quals?) because they’re the ‘gold standard’ level 3 qualification in E, W and NI and the uni system is based on these quals. As others have said, STEM degrees need the depth that ALs produce. I don’t view the withdrawal of the top up funding as removing aspiration - I don’t regard IB as any more aspirational than AL, and it is a disadvantage in a lot of subjects.

Yes, my dc has friends who did IB and now at uni studying science - the view seems to be that uni teaching staff assume all students did A-level… one example given was early on in first year, the uni lecturer announced the next topic for study, and said ‘you’ll all have covered this in A-level, so we’ll have a test on it next week to refresh memory’ - and it was a topic not covered in IB, so not great for the friend in that class…

The workload in IB is also immense - my eldest dc doesn’t know anyone that enjoyed it… just that it was extremely stressful…

My children’s independent school cancelled IB as a direct result of VAT. Current yr 13’s are the last cohort and current yr 12’s are all a level. The majority took a level anyway but any narrowing of education opportunities avaliable is a shame.

Name changed as potentially outing. I work in an IB school and have two kids of my own who are/will be doing IB. It's an absolutely fantastic course (and we have loads who go on to do maths, sciences, medicine etc very successfully). I wish I'd had the opportunity to do it myself. OP are you happy to say which area you're in? If you're in my area, I will pm you.

We looked at IB for DD at a couple of grammar schools. She was put off because the Maths Higher seemed challenging and there were two types and it was confusing and there was some sort of issue with the Maths Higher exam last year. Also the Computer Science course was a little different, not sure it was great. Couple in the fact it is a lot of extra work and we felt UK unis do not give full credit for it, it put us off. There would be a lot more teaching time as they do 6 subjects, plus an extended essay plus a philosophy course called theory of knowledge. I really do not know how a state school can deliver this without the top up funding. The cynic in me says Labour scrapped it for being elitist, offered in grammar schools. They are having a dig at private and some grammar schools?
My concern would also be the impact on funding for children lower down in these schools if they have to essentially use some of the money to put towards Sixth Form?
I think in the state sixth form sector there will still be additional funding for 4 A levels. I think it is ridiculous that heads now increasingly need to play the funding and Ofsted game above all else rather than get on with teaching our children. It is the Government to blame for this ridiculous state of affairs.

Could the exam entry fees for IB also be a lot higher potentially?

I have a DC who switched schools in September to start the IB and this news is something of a worry. They are now attending a grammar school with a large sixth form where only the IB can be studied and where the entry requirement to get into the sixth form is no more than it was to stay at their comprehensive. DC chose the IB because they wanted to stay in a school environment rather than go to a college, their school didn't offer the subjects they wanted to do and because they liked that the IB would give them the opportunity to keep a wider range of subjects going.

Since the announcement last week, I'm now concerned they've switched to a school whose extremely experienced IB teachers are going to spend the next 18 months either looking to move into the independent sector or to try and get on top of the A-level courses they will presumably have to teach from 2027. One of the local schools that does IB announced on Friday that it was switching to A-levels but apparently that had been in the pipeline for that one anyway.

Having looked into the background to the decision, the top up funding currently received for the IB is also received by sixth forms for students who study 4 or 5 A-levels and get at least four grade Bs. When the IB top up is withdrawn, the additional A-level funding will only be available if a student is studying maths, further maths, a 'premium' subject and something else. The premium subjects are the three sciences, computing, statistics and a couple of other mathsy/sciencey options. It doesn't bode well for teachers of other subjects and as it's hard for schools to recruit science and maths teachers anyway, it will be interesting to see how things will work.

If my DC hadn't just started IB I'd be encouraging them to apply to IB and A-level places but would also be tearing my hair out at the uncertainty, knowing their hoped-for humanities subjects may find themselves off the timetable in the scrabble for funding. I'm not sure I'd be keen on them going to one of the IB schools that is switching to A-level, not in its first year or so because the time and money to get it up and running, textbooks, training etc will be a lot.

“You may have read in the media that the additional funding schools receive for delivering the IB Diploma programme will be withdrawn from next year.
This relates to the additional funding we receive for each Sixth Form student in addition to the core government funding to recognise the higher cost of running a larger study programme.
We only received this information shortly before it was reported in the media. Since then, we have been reviewing what this means for us as a school community. Our priority remains to ensure that students continue to receive the very best educational experience and are fully supported throughout their time at TGS.
In light of the changes to our Sixth Form funding, there will be changes to our Sixth Form programme of study from September 2026 that may affect your child:
For current Year 12 and 13 students: students will continue to study the IB Diploma Programme with full support from our dedicated teaching and support staff.
For students starting Year 12 from September 2026: We will offer a programme that retains all the benefits of the TGS Sixth Form experience—academic rigour, a comprehensive super-curricular experience, wide-ranging leadership opportunities, destination-specific support, an active alumni network to inspire and guide, and research opportunities. Subjects in the Sixth Form will be delivered as A Levels, a pathway in which we have a long tradition of success.”

One example. Of particular note:
We only received this information shortly before it was reported in the media.

I would have thought that a lot of the kids who would have done Maths Higher at IB (the harder one, I think it was called Analysis) can switch to Maths and Further Maths plus the Science the Government is demanding for the top up especially in grammar schools. They will already have a lot of Maths teachers because every student needed to do maths for IB.