Is My School A Bit Weird?

So basically I heard a student asking her maths teacher why she didn’t get a predicted grade of A* in maths a level even though she got a very very high mark in her mocks, and her maths teacher said “oh, I deliberately lowered your grades by 1 grade so that you won’t be disappointed after the real exam if you got lower than A* and can’t go to the uni that gave you an offer, this is to ensure that you have an university to go to.”
So here’s where I’m a bit confused…don’t schools usually make ur predicted grades higher by one grade than what you actually obtained? Why is my school so weird? It’s like they won’t want students to get offers from good universities, and only want students to be able to go to a relatively-not-that-good university just so the school can say something like “80% went to university” or sth?
Is it only my school that does this? Or is this normal and I’m just overthinking?

I had my GCSE finals in covid. They lowered or made our grades higher then what we got in our final grades. I remember I got a 7 and a 6 in my english test but it got moved down to a 5 and 4 because that was what it was like in year 9. Schools are weird like that. Might be because they are trying to keep up with the saying that every year is better then the last.

So basically I heard a student asking her maths teacher why she didn’t get a predicted grade of A* in maths a level even though she got a very very high mark in her mocks, and her maths teacher said “oh, I deliberately lowered your grades by 1 grade so that you won’t be disappointed after the real exam if you got lower than A* and can’t go to the uni that gave you an offer, this is to ensure that you have an university to go to.”
So here’s where I’m a bit confused…don’t schools usually make ur predicted grades higher by one grade than what you actually obtained? Why is my school so weird? It’s like they won’t want students to get offers from good universities, and only want students to be able to go to a relatively-not-that-good university just so the school can say something like “80% went to university” or sth?
Is it only my school that does this? Or is this normal and I’m just overthinking?

So basically I heard a student asking her maths teacher why she didn’t get a predicted grade of A* in maths a level even though she got a very very high mark in her mocks, and her maths teacher said “oh, I deliberately lowered your grades by 1 grade so that you won’t be disappointed after the real exam if you got lower than A* and can’t go to the uni that gave you an offer, this is to ensure that you have an university to go to.”
So here’s where I’m a bit confused…don’t schools usually make ur predicted grades higher by one grade than what you actually obtained? Why is my school so weird? It’s like they won’t want students to get offers from good universities, and only want students to be able to go to a relatively-not-that-good university just so the school can say something like “80% went to university” or sth?
Is it only my school that does this? Or is this normal and I’m just overthinking?

The obvious question to ask this teacher is how you're meant to get an offer for a course requiring A* in maths?

That does not sound correct. They should predict what they think you are most likely to get. They should not overpredict, as you then risk losing your offers, but they should not under predicted either, as you then risk not getting the offers you want in the first place.

I think the school just want students to get into any university for any course even if it’s not a good one..? I don’t understand why they’re doing it tho?

So basically I heard a student asking her maths teacher why she didn’t get a predicted grade of A* in maths a level even though she got a very very high mark in her mocks, and her maths teacher said “oh, I deliberately lowered your grades by 1 grade so that you won’t be disappointed after the real exam if you got lower than A* and can’t go to the uni that gave you an offer, this is to ensure that you have an university to go to.”
So here’s where I’m a bit confused…don’t schools usually make ur predicted grades higher by one grade than what you actually obtained? Why is my school so weird? It’s like they won’t want students to get offers from good universities, and only want students to be able to go to a relatively-not-that-good university just so the school can say something like “80% went to university” or sth?
Is it only my school that does this? Or is this normal and I’m just overthinking?

If you overheard it then it's possible you misunderstood.
A high mark does not automatically generate an A * prediction - you have to be working at that level every day.
Predictions need to be accurate but many schools over-predict. I am held to account, as are all my colleagues, for our predictions - this mena s hardly anyone misses their firm.

The student walked into the classroom while I was having my maths lesson and ask the teacher about this. And he said that the department just doesn’t give out any A* and will deliberately lower her grade from A* to A. Maybe I misunderstood some part of it, because I don’t personally know the student, so idk. Maybe it is all just a misunderstanding, but I feel like this certainly is something my school is capable of doing. Perhaps I’m just being biased.

The student walked into the classroom while I was having my maths lesson and ask the teacher about this. And he said that the department just doesn’t give out any A* and will deliberately lower her grade from A* to A. Maybe I misunderstood some part of it, because I don’t personally know the student, so idk. Maybe it is all just a misunderstanding, but I feel like this certainly is something my school is capable of doing. Perhaps I’m just being biased.

Just focus on your own predictions. There are studnets who do well in one exam that doesn't reflect their usual work and this could be the case here.

Some schools also have this odd systems of having internal predicted grades, and sperate UCAS predicted grades, which tend to be slightly higher. It would be extremely unfair to never give A* UCAS predictions, as you would not get into some of the elites that require A*.