Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

As a Charlton Athletic fan of many years standing I have got used to reading league tables from the bottom up!

However I was surprised to see that CH appeared to have 0% of pupils attaining 5 GCSEs at A* - C. I then saw this article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/le ... GCSEs.html

which almost certainly explains the reason for 0% but it does not explain how CH actually did. There is a figure of 499.30 shown for CH which purports to be average GCSE and equivalent point score. My daughter's state school had a figure of 532.70 but there was also a percentage figure, unlike with CH, so one assumes one is not comparing like with like.

Can anybody put me out of my confused misery?!

According to the CH website, the score was 90% A*,A or B, with 2/3 A* or A.

so could be a miss type?

blondie95 wrote:so could be a Miss Type?

Didn't she teach at Hertford ?????

J.R. wrote:

blondie95 wrote:so could be a Miss Type?

Didn't she teach at Hertford ?????

No, that was Miss Print

with her friends Miss Demeanour and Miss Conduct I suppose.

Then, of course, there was the teacher who hated eveybody -

Miss Anne Thrope

We (briefly) had a maths teacher called Miss Please. At least once in every lesson she would yell MISS PLEASSSSSSSSS.

CH teaches the IGCSE Maths course. This is why we got a 0 along with those independent schools who also do IGCSE. The government's refusal to admit this as a legitimate course is barking - but that is a different matter. Our 499 result placed us at the top of the West Sussex school league, which is pleasing. Unless your daughter is at a selective grammar school, i fear we are talking about a misprint. Maybe not, but probably!

onewestguncopse wrote:CH teaches the IGCSE Maths course. This is why we got a 0 along with those independent schools who also do IGCSE. The government's refusal to admit this as a legitimate course is barking - but that is a different matter. Our 499 result placed us at the top of the West Sussex school league, which is pleasing. Unless your daughter is at a selective grammar school, i fear we are talking about a misprint. Maybe not, but probably!

Thanks for clarifying.

Yes my daughter's school is a selective grammar school (although she has been there only for 6th form). That said I thought CH had a minimum academic requirement so could also be described as academically selective.

I appreciate that there are "need" criteria too.

I know I had to take exams to get there although admittedly we are talking many years ago!

CH is selective - more so now than it has been in the past. However, it is quite probable that many good grammar schools are more selective, given that they are free!

I know a friend at a Kent grammar school that receives 1100 applications for 100 or so places. As a result, they take the best 10% of an already able cohort of applicants and unsurprisingly do well at GCSE and A Level. This shows two things - GCSE and A levels are increasingly useless as discriminators (ask any admissions tutor at a top university for proof) and league tables are pretty worthless as comparative tools. It is foolish to compare a grammar in Kent with a good comprehensive in London or an independent school in Essex that takes students with a broad range of academic potential. Their intake is so different. Better to look at value added - CH does well here too by the way!

By the way, anyone who says that A levels are not easier now is talking out of their hat! (Personal viewpoint not CH policy!) The reason is fairly simple - modules and retakes. If at first you do not succeed - do it again and again .........

I have not seen any A level papers for some time, so cannot really comment on whether they are easier or not. What I can say, is that my A level grades were A and 2 Bs - and this was easily enough (with the entrance exams) to get into Oxford. I would think my grades were fairly typical at that time (66), most of us, but not all, had As in our main subject.

Now can you imagine anyone getting into Oxford on those grades - O levels nothing to write home about either 2As, 2Bs, 2Cs a D & an E.

In the 80s it was straight As for Oxbridge and still 7th term up until about 1986 I think. Of course if you were an U18 rugby or cricket player, this did open some doors!

I remember our board was Oxford and Cambridge and in all frankness it was bl**dy hard. Medieval history we had three exams of 3 hours long and had to write three essays in each exam. Ouch.

I agree the module system is more favorable as you get a second chance. For sure teh Americans have had their average grade points so that all does not rest on a final exam. How treacherous to lose out after 7 years of private education because you fluffed the A level and so could not go on to uni. Was this why we had polys at the time?

Not sure if I have said this before. My son missed his schooling with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and took English and Maths at evening classes.

He brought a couple of past papers home for revision and he did them in just over 20 minutes and got them all correct. They took me about 15 minutes. Maths only, no idea about the English. I got an A for O' level but have done no maths since, just 35 years of life.

The same happened with Reigate Grammar School - all in the local paper here how they got 0% - they too have IGCSEs - seems daft to me!