Change to Nonsuch test for 2014 entry

[London_Mum]

But that applies to the candidate's mother tongue. Nonsuch refer to the candidates' parent's mother tongue. Two entirely different things.

Nonsuch is proposing to disregard a candidate's score in a GCSE subject based, not the student's first language, but on the first language of either of their parents. I have never heard of the nationality or language capabilities of a student's parents being brought into admission criteria before and I don't see how it is fair or workable.

If they were examining a child's own mother tongue then perhaps I could see the reasoning (as UCL seem do) but they are not.

[ThreeKids]

Seems to me that they have identified they have a mixed bag of diamonds and glass and are attempting to hit it with a hammer to shatter the glass and leave them only with the diamonds. Unfortunately they have yet to work out that the hammer is made of rubber and liable to bounce back and hit them in the face!

[London_Mum]

Exactly ThreeKids - there is obviously some sort of underlying issue regarding sixth form admissions for them to have devised such a policy in the first place.
Whatever that issue may be, there must be a better and less contentious way for them to address it than to try to ascertain the native language of each applicant's parents to let that influence the child’s GCSE grade average.
Surely just raising the grade requirements for sixth form entry generally, or in targeted ways for each A Level subject, would be one such solution.
I just don't understand how they think they are going to force parents to declare their native language if they feel it will be detrimental to their child to do so and I don’t understand what the school can possibly do if a parent states that English is their first language and the school don’t believe them.
Unless you they are actually going to enter the realms of declaring people born abroad or into certain ethnicities must, by association, have a differing first language, I think they are going to be on a very sticky wicket in terms of equality issues.
There will be some whose parental language abilities are unknown, some whose parents are truly multi lingual despite having learnt English first and others who may have a differing mother tongue but never converse in it at home. Rubber hammer and bounce back are very good descriptions of where this will lead if implemented.

[2outof3]

It is worth noting, however, that one language gcse is unlikely to make much of a difference. The points score total required for admission to the sixth form is based on the best 8 gcses and so it will be very rare that excluding one gcse will be the defining factor. It hardly seems worth it to be honest.

When my DD was going through this I think we worked out that you could get the 50 points with a minimum of something like 5 As and 3 Bs (no A* required!) This may sound hefty but it's a very rare Nonsuch girl who doesn't get this (atleast 60 out of last year's year 11 got 8 or more A*s.)

I would guess that this new provision is poor drafting and that it should read that they will exclude the mother tongue of the child and not of the parent but I still wonder why they would bother It's probably worth responding to the consultation though.

[tiffinboys]

I would guess that this new provision is poor drafting and that it should read that they will exclude the mother tongue of the child and not of the parent but I still wonder why they would bother It's probably worth responding to the consultation though.

+1

[London_Mum]

I wondered about that too 2outof3. Although I think the whole notion of considering a parent's mother tongue is unfair (and it seems quite clear they don't mean the applicant's native language since the draft refers to both or either of the parents speaking a different mother tongue), I cannot imagine what kind of admission problems they are having which would lead such a draft policy to be deemed necessary or desirable.

I cannot imagine there are lots of Nonsuch girls below standard for A level study let alone many who 'artificially' boost their grade average on the basis of a GCSE taken in a language which one of their parents may speak. It seems a pretty unlikely scenario yet the draft admissions policy covers just that eventuality. Which again led me to wonder what kind of admission challenges they are facing and why these cannot be solved by simply increasing the grade requirements for individual A Levels rather than making a judgement call on deserved and undeserved GCSE grades.