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A petition against my school forcing 4 A2s on us (no ability to drop a subject!)

Many of you will have heard about the new A level changes starting implementation this year, our school is part of the minority "getting ahead" with these changes, and our year 12s are the guinea pigs.

TL;DR: we have no use for 4 study courses, reduces our performance (and therefore university chances), none of the students asked for it, puts pressure on teachers and students, only for extra funding, senior staff lied.

Essentially, the school has said that we have the option to leave if we want to drop a subject at the end of year 12. The new conservative government's higher education system has changed things for the worse in my opinion, now the sixth form colleges get more money if we do 4 full A2 courses for 2 years instead of the 4 AS' and then 3 A2s if we want drop a subject for year 13. Thus the school has opted for a policy to make us follow this new system.

Our assistant headteacher has claimed that we accepted we were doing 4 a levels for 2 years when we signed our contracts, but we checked and this isn't the case: http://imgur.com/AdtgNNC

Of course, this will negatively affect student performance in the long run. Doing 4 instead of 3 in year 13 will just add to stress that is unnecessary when you consider that universities have NOT changed their course requirements to acknowledge 4 a levels in any meaningful way. The requirements are still as they have been for years.

They told us in an assembly that it was a myth that this is for extra money, but the teachers I've spoken to so far have said the opposite of this. If you do 3 courses now, you are technically counted as a part time student which means the government gives the school less funding for you.

Also, it puts more pressure on the teachers as they have to teach more students per class, and of course this means there are more pupils per teacher in the classroom. Then they have to drag on students who are reluctant to carry on the subject for a second year, which leads to more stress for the teachers, and worse grades for the students.

All in all, I'd say this is putting a lot of students' futures at stake and the school refuses to budge as of now. This petition probably wouldn't help much, but it would at least show the discontent of students who are facing this or watching fellow students go through this ridiculous system, so if you empathise with our situation at all then we'd greatly appreciate a signature from you, thank you.

Reply 1

doodle_333

you're not going to make any difference, can you not just fail the extra subject? or move to another college/school if you're that bothered, they may think about the decision if half the year leave

Reply 2

llys

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9349428/State-school-pupils-restricted-to-three-A-levels-under-funding-change.html

Reply 3

BubbleBoobies

I did 4 A2s as well
total mistake - don't even bother.
just **** up on one of them and focus on the other 3
honestly, the entry standards aren't going to change

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