• Dad suing son's £28k a year private school for £125,000 after son left with a single GCSE
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[url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/father-sues-private-school-abbotsholme-independent-rocester-son-fails-all-but-one-gcses-a7195716.html[/url] [QUOTE]A father from Staffordshire is suing a £28,000-per-year private school after his son left with just one pass at GCSE. Scott Craddock, 57, has served papers to Abbotsholme School in Rocester after complaining that he did not get his money’s worth by sending his son David to the school. He claims his son – who left with one C grade in science last year – would have been better off going to a local state comprehensive. Mr Craddock, who worked as a truck driver in the Middle East to pay for David’s £125,000 education, pointed out that GCSE and A-Level results had gone down across the board last year, suggesting his son was not the only one to leave with poor grades. He told the Uttoxeter Advertiser: “I paid £28,000 a year for five years for David to go to Abbotsholme. ”David was disheartened when he got his results. He said 'you spent all that money on my education and I walk away with one GCSE'. I sent David to Abbotsholme but in my opinion the school is not value for money in any way, shape or form.“ Mr Craddock, who is retired, said he was asked not to attend the school’s summer gathering, but did so in order to serve legal papers to headmaster Steve Fairclough and the chairman of the school governors in the middle of the speeches. ”The money I spent could have paid for a house for him when he turns 18,” he said. “I will be taking legal action to try and get this money reimbursed.“[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Mr Craddock said the standard of education at the college seemed “much better”. '”The only thing he came away from Abbotsholme with differently is that his best friend is the son of a Russian oligarch,” he said. “Otherwise he might as well have gone the local comp.” Abbotsholme School headmaster Mr Fairclough admitted that last year's results were “not as good” as previous years.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-suing-sons-posh-125000-8650257[/url] [QUOTE]Abbotsholme School is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girl aged between two and 18. The school charges up to £30,000-a-year in fees. Its GCSE results from the summer of 2015 were lower than the national average. Just 60 per cent of pupils from the independent boarding and day school received grades between an A* and a C.[/QUOTE]
Single GCSE? Damn thats fucking bad, and its not even maths or english
tbh it sounds like the father did put in a shift so his son got the benefit of a good education, then got roasted on results day
What idiot would pay that much for a school with low average scores?
[QUOTE=Jelman;50902858]Single GCSE? Damn thats fucking bad, and its not even maths or english[/QUOTE] The school sounds like a complete scam to me, aimed at suckering in rich foreigners who can't get into good private schools or people earning a lot but who have less education themselves (this guy was actually a truck driver working in the middle east) and don't realise how poorly the school performs. As funny as this story is, I feel sorry for this guy. He wanted a better education for his son which he worked hard for abroad to pay for and was conned. For clarification on GCSEs and some comparison: They the first big set of public exams in the UK. Everyone is expected to 'pass' (get a C or above) in at least five including Maths and English. They are far from difficult by any standard. My local state school well outperformed this school (admittedly a London school, which are better than elsewhere) and my school (a private school) got 90% A*/A with everyone entered into at least ten exams.
jesus, I wonder how they managed to do badly enough that the school went below the national average in a year where pass percentages actually went across the board. I wonder if it was because of the teachers being lackadisical, or if it was the students doing poorly in general. edit: with results that horrendous, I'd have to agree that this school could be a scam.
[QUOTE=Cructo;50902879]I was thinking it was just a kid who didn't put any effort towards studying but this really got me[/QUOTE] Agreed. This school is an organized scam, they need to be heavily reprimanded.
[QUOTE=sgman91;50902870]What idiot would pay that much for a school with low average scores?[/QUOTE] He was already at the school for four years when the school went below average on the results.
[QUOTE=Cructo;50902911]Yeah. But the father really should've done some researching on the average results etc before dumping a shitload of money in a private school.[/QUOTE] I agree, but I think this is deliberately preying on people like him who probably aren't that educated themselves (looking at his job).
"Just 60 per cent of pupils from the independent boarding and day school received grades between an A* and a C." this is worse than all state schools in my area
[quote]Just 60 per cent of pupils from the independent boarding and day school received grades between an A* and a C.[/quote] That isn't even funny anymore, this is just sad.
[quote]He said 'you spent all that money on my education and I walk away with one GCSE'. [/quote] Maybe, if you have an expensive education and almost totally fail an easy set of exams, you're shit?
[QUOTE=r0b0tsquid;50903385]Maybe, if you have an expensive education and almost totally fail an easy set of exams, you're shit?[/QUOTE] Except only about 65% of girls and 60% of boys leave school with 5 A*-C grades, with average schools being closer to 45/50. Something is obviously wrong when a £30k a year school is getting less than national average pass rates for GCSEs. For context, the amount of money he was paying to go to school per year is just slightly more than the average 2 adult household in the UK working full time brings in per year.
Sounds like his kid was just crap tbh, my school was garbage, I had a teacher who literally just put mock the week on for our politics lesson and then went home and I still managed to come out with at least B's in all my GCSEs despite literally never revising for any of them. Edit: Saying that it seems only 25% of people who go there come out with 5 A-C's which is pretty fucking awful honestly.
What are A* and C* scores? We have 1-10 system here in Slovenia, 1-5 is negative, 6 is a pass, 10 is best.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;50903492]Sounds like his kid was just crap tbh, my school was garbage, I had a teacher who literally just put mock the week on for our politics lesson and then went home and I still managed to come out with at least B's in all my GCSEs despite literally never revising for any of them. Edit: Saying that it seems only 25% of people who go there come out with 5 A-C's which is pretty fucking awful honestly.[/QUOTE] People learn differently.
[QUOTE=Fourier;50903513]What are A* and C* scores? We have 1-10 system here in Slovenia, 1-5 is negative, 6 is a pass, 10 is best.[/QUOTE] U (Ungraded) is a fail here, then it's D-C-B-A-A*. D at GCSE's is technically a pass but C is meant to be 'average' I guess, so a lot of employers will ask for minimum of C in maths/English just to make sure people are meeting the baseline. Like I said above though we have foundation papers and higher papers, if students are struggling they can be put on the foundation paper which max grade is a C but its far easier to obtain, and students on higher papers can go all the way to A* but the questions on the paper are a lot harder. GCSEs mean very little if you go on to higher education (College/A Levels then Uni), but it spells a problem when people drop out of school at 16 without getting any GCSEs at C or above so they will struggle to get any kind of OK job without extra education to get them back ahead. I don't even list my GCSEs/A-Levels on my CV aside from maths and english just so they know I have them, all of the other subjects are kinda redundant other than to say 'I did well in all of my exams' when you don't have a lot else to put on your CV.
More universities nowadays have minimum GCSE A* requirements to get in, for example 7 A*s at GCSE for Economics at Warwick (according to my well connected economics teacher), so that isn't quite true anymore. [editline]18th August 2016[/editline] Also, I don't think a D is technically a pass. I think a C is the pass grade, but I may be wrong.
I think it's a pass in the sense that you have a grade and it counts as a qualification, just C is used for a good pass.
[url]https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/113003[/url] God fucking damn this school is shady (look at those stats!) [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/MFt7cPK.png[/IMG] (also I forgot about the iGCSE change which makes my school look like [URL="http://i.imgur.com/ED5KuIE.png"]this[/URL] like all schools who take the iGCSE) [QUOTE]Admissions policy: Non selective[/QUOTE] Here is the big reveal, a highly unusual selections policy for a private school
This is why standardised exams are a good thing. They should be looked at less as how each individual student goes, but rather as how each school goes on average. We have something called the NAPLAN here which does exactly that (if a student fails the NAPLAN it doesn't mean shit - it's not something which goes on your resume and is not accounted for when you pick classes for senior school).
[QUOTE=Cushie;50903410]Except only about 65% of girls and 60% of boys leave school with 5 A*-C grades, with average schools being closer to 45/50. Something is obviously wrong when a £30k a year school is getting less than national average pass rates for GCSEs. For context, the amount of money he was paying to go to school per year is just slightly more than the average 2 adult household in the UK working full time brings in per year.[/QUOTE] I understand the context, and agree that there's something seriously wrong with the school. What makes my skin crawl is that the kid doesn't seem to have any concept of his own responsibility for his grades. Learning isn't a passive thing, and if you're a human participation award then no school is going to save your grades.
Oh shit. My dad thinks he might have been offered to take this case on but decided not to do it in the end when I told him about this
[QUOTE=r0b0tsquid;50906571]I understand the context, and agree that there's something seriously wrong with the school. What makes my skin crawl is that the kid doesn't seem to have any concept of his own responsibility for his grades. Learning isn't a passive thing, and if you're a human participation award then no school is going to save your grades.[/QUOTE] Yeah I guess, obviously its part responsibility on both sides (School to give a good standard of education, kid to be willing to learn) BUT seeing the average results vs national (25% 5 A*-C and 29% for Maths/English) its obvious that there is something very wrong with the school itself. The kid might not be particularly stupid - I didn't go to a great school and I understand the struggle too. I failed quite a few of my GCSE's basically because I got thrown into classes full of naughty people and we rarely got to actually cover the work. Our maths teacher was useless and we'd only managed to cover half of the syllabus by the end of the year so we all had to be put down for foundation papers; I got a C but it really didn't represent my maths ability.
Hopefully this guy can recover some cash and then some, private schools are the worst.
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