11 Plus Exams Forum

A couple of friends I know have children who have been asked to leave at the end of year 12 from state schools. However they sound as though they are in a different position from your child - they all failed their end of year 12 exams and that was a criteria for remaining into year 13. (State comprehensives).
They have all moved to other schools/colleges but have, with one exception, restarted year 12. The exception is a student who continued one of his subjects with the year 13 cohort and the other two with the year 12 cohort.
Does she want to go to university?
What are her predicted grades at the moment? I imagine for some subjects 30-80% range would end up with a decent grade, enough to go somewhere to study something if her heart is set on it? (No specialist knowledge so apologies if I'm wrong)

loobylou wrote:A couple of friends I know have children who have been asked to leave at the end of year 12 from state schools. However they sound as though they are in a different position from your child - they all failed their end of year 12 exams and that was a criteria for remaining into year 13. (State comprehensives).

The St Olaves case established that this alone is not a legal reason to exclude - year 12 is the point of entry to a two year course. Although DD says that some of her year have been asked to sign some kind of 'learning contract' - she reckons with the school's they that he they do poorly in their end of year exams, that will then become a disciplinary issue, for which they can be excluded

ToadMum wrote:

loobylou wrote:A couple of friends I know have children who have been asked to leave at the end of year 12 from state schools. However they sound as though they are in a different position from your child - they all failed their end of year 12 exams and that was a criteria for remaining into year 13. (State comprehensives).

The St Olaves case established that this alone is not a legal reason to exclude - year 12 is the point of entry to a two year course. Although DD says that some of her year have been asked to sign some kind of 'learning contract' - she reckons with the school's they that he they do poorly in their end of year exams, that will then become a disciplinary issue, for which they can be excluded

Yes I've seen that before but at all the schools I know this happens. My dh's comprehensive certainly does. Though mostly it's associated with students not working as well; almost by definition they have the ability to pass the A level given their grades in the GCSE. Ds and Es are fine but Us tend to mean they have to leave or stop doing that subject.
I think they do start the course being aware of that though and personally I think it's different from asking them to leave purely based on the fact that they are getting C's or grades that are going to upset the league table position.

13. It is unlawful to exclude for a non-disciplinary reason. For example, it would be
unlawful to exclude a pupil simply because they have additional needs or a disability that the school feels it is unable to meet, or for a reason such as: academic attainment/ability;
the action of a pupil’s parents; or the failure of a pupil to meet specific conditions before they are reinstated, such as to attend a reintegration meeting. However, a pupil who repeatedly disobeys their teachers’ academic instructions could, be subject to exclusion.


Exclusion from 
maintained schools, 
academies and pupil 
referral units in 
England
Statutory guidance for those with legal 
responsibilities in relation to exclusion
September 2017

Could try using the last point, I suppose...

Interesting.
I just showed it to dh (his school is known locally for its pastoral care over and above its results).
He says that the only people who leave are people who aren't doing their homework/essays/attending enough lessons - who also happen to be the people who fail. They're also picked up constantly through the year and have loads of meetings warning what will happen if those things don't improve. It's not just on academics but the decision is usually made in the summer when it's clear that improvement have not been made. So my perception of the reason they're asked to leave may not be quite the reality...

Alibaba's Jack Ma on failure.... and standing up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fu40RRlMMk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Has she considered dropping one subject next year? Maybe just concentrate on her 2 best and then maybe look for a college to take additional subjects next year. I think a gap year is an excellent idea, certainly encouraging my son to think about it.

Firstly thank you to all of you for taking the time to help me - really grateful!

Re: Additional time in exams - we're considering having her re-assessed as in Yr 9 it was too mild to afford her extra time and nor did she feel it would benefit her. Now, however, her ADD may well have become more of an issue so perhaps this is something we need to do.

Re: Gap year - the more I think about it, the more it feels like a positive idea. I will certainly highlight the benefits to her and see if this is something she will consider.

She and I feel that this has been a 'wake up' call and that perhaps there is a silver lining! I will try and update here once we have made some decisions and explored all options.

My sons' school has a clearly flagged area of the school website for FOI requests. These are relevant to this particular situation:

Do you have a policy which sets out requirements for progression in the Sixth Form?
No
In the last 5 years have you refused to allow a student to continue their studies in Year 13 of the Sixth Form after failing to achieve particular academic benchmarks?
No

This is a 'superselective' GS. By contrast, a friend of ours was asked to leave a local non-selective school after getting BBU in AS levels. His mother (encouraged by radical friends ) went and fought this as the child had no reasonable alternative, was hardworking and also very distressed; the child was allowed to stay at the school. His A level results were ABD in the end which I think probably proved that the mother and her friends were right to fight.

I wonder if less selective schools do this more? Though the St Olave's case and the infamous QE policy suggest that others may try it. I am not sure where private schools lie in this but in your case, disenchanted, if I was happy with the school and my child was happy to be in it, I would take my gloves off and prepare for a fight!


Just seen your post - I cannot begin to tell you how positive the gap years taken in this family have been, for different reasons, but a lot of growing up happens in a very short space of time. Having seen rather too many talented young people dropping out of university, to me, unless you have a child with a virtual vocation, then a gap year is always going to be worthwhile. And thinking about it, a vocation would surely only get stronger if it was the right thing so a gap year would leave them absolutely champing at the bit to get going!

disenchanted wrote:The school feels 'independent learning' is key.

What are they charging fees for then?

I can't add any more to the excellent advice you're getting on here and just wanted to add that I think the school is handling this very badly. I agree with others that their primary motivation seems to be their results rather than the education of one of their students. You will have paid tens of thousands of pounds in fees over the years and now they want to cast your daughter off with a year to go? Outrageous.

Well done on some really good GCSE results, too.