Any 6th form/AS level teachers who can advise me, please?

[BecauseImWorthIt]

DS1 has just started 6th form college and is doing 3 full A levels and 1 AS level.

We have his first parents' evening in a couple of weeks' time, and the college has just sent through his progress report.

For each subject he is given a Benchmark level, which apparently is based on GCSE statistics, and then an Attainment level.

DS1 is studying English and History as full A levels. He got As in his GCSEs for these subjects. He is studying Philosophy for a full A level, which is a new subject and French for AS level, in which he achieved B at GCSE.

He has been given a C Benchmark grade for English, History and French and a D for Philosophy.

Can anyone explain why these grades should be this low given his GCSE grades? I can sort of get the Philosophy one given that it's a new subject, but really don't understand the thinking behind the rest!

His attainment grades are OK - for English and History they match the Benchmark, for Philosophy he is ahead, achieving a C, and for French he is achieving a D, which is lower.

I need to know how to interpret these grades so that I know what to say to DS - I want to be supportive, but also need to know if I have to do the pep talk about performance/improvement/more commitment, etc.

It depends on how the benchmark is calculated. There are various different methods they could be using. For example, where I am we establish a GCSE average point score (Add together the value of GCSEs and then divide by the total number of GCSEs) then this is used as a basic prediction. Not terribly reliable though. We also use ALIS (which sounds closer to your son's benchmark), which again inputs all the GCSE grades and calculates a predicted grade. However, there are a couple of things to note...

If Alis, then the grade is calculated depending on the subject, so harder 'a' levels tend to get lower Alis predictions - Philosophy (my subject btw) often gets some of the lowest ALIS predictions because it is such a hard 'A' level.

HTH

Also, the scores are based on all of his GCSES, not just the ones that are relevant to his A level choices. You state that "He got As in his GCSEs for these subjects", so I'm guessing he didn't get As for his other subjects? Well, as these predictions are based on all of their GCSEs, then if his other GCSEs gained lower grades, then that will pull down his predictions.

Finally, you need to remember that often this is the minimum grade he should be aiming to get. If he gets below this, then he will be classed as underachieving, so he should be aiming for at least a D in philosophy and so on...

Thanks, ketal - that's really helpful.

I can't talk for the other subjects but I know that GCSEs aren't necessarily the best preparation for A-level history. We often get students who have achieved an A grade at GCSE and end up floundering at A-level. I'm not saying that to suggest that your ds is one of those but just to point out that A-levels are very different from GCSEs so (particularly at this very early stage in his course) don't necessarily expect similar grades (benchmarks or attainment) to the GCSE grades.

Do you think he is committed and working hard?

Good question.

I think he thinks he's committed. He probably thinks he's working hard, and he's certainly interested in History and is really enjoying Philsophy (much to my surprise!)

I'm not sure about working hard. One thing that his college stresses, and I've tried to communicate to him is about reading around a subject - i.e. not just doing the bare minimum. But this seems to be falling on deaf ears.

To some extent I have been biding my time until this parents' evening. It was interesting tonight when I was talking to him about coming with me - he clearly thought it wasn't necessary for him to attend, whereas it's obvious from the college's letter that they expect him to be there - as do I, so that we can talk about all of these things.

I know it's a major step up from GCSE to A level, but I'm trying to make sure that I really know what I'm talking about so that I know when it's appropriate to be on his case/leave him to get on with it.

It's so helpful to hear a teacher's perspective.

GCSE passes are traditional grades A - C, but A-level passes are A - E. This means that the grades are stretched out so that they can be reported more accurately.

Think of an A/A* at GCSE being an A/B at A-level, a B would translate to a low B, C, high D, and a C would translate to a D/E.

I would imagine that the school does not want to overpromise on the A-grades in case he gets complacent. They can get As at GCSE based on raw talent and little work. This attitude at A-level will get them a D. They have to ramp up the work at A-level to get the top grades.

My DS is also in lower 6, and at his parents' evening, his tutor's sheet for him predicted 5 A's (looking upside down as you do), but she didn't tell him that. He needs to put in maximum effort to secure his As, and hopefully A*s by A2.

Ball park figure, rule of thumb is that most students will drop a grade when they shift to AS level. That said, in biology if they don't put in the work as they go along their grades can drop like a rock. I've had kids go from a B grade at GCSE to fail outright because they thought that they could get away with working at AS in the same way as they did as GCSE, which they can't. Not even the brightest ones.

So If he got a B grade in GCSE french then a C grade is a reasonable prediction. But if he doesn't put the work in, and A levels are a lot more work than GCSE, be will not fulfil his potential

Thanks squeakypop and MB.

The college is very hot on effort, commitment and going beyond the minimum, so I'm hoping that he will get this message from them sooner rather than later.

I keep telling him, but I'm very well aware that when I speak, in reality all he hears is 'blah blah blah' ...