At The Latymer School, Year 12 students have a 4-subject programme and in the spring term they indicate the subject they intend to drop in Year 13. They are entered for an external AS exam in that subject. They also sit internal "UCAS exams" in the other three subjects and their UCAS predictions are based on these. The internal exams are set at an AS level, with some developmental questions at A2 level. The exams are moderated to achieve consistency. We award grades in the range A to E and they will need a high A grade to be given an A* prediction. Some departments awarded an A* grade if they had shown that level.

The Latymer students continue with three subjects in Year 13 so the majority of them will achieve 3 A Levels and one AS Level. There are some exceptions; a small number of students are given a 3-subject programme in Year 12, based on performance at GCSE, and the Further Maths students sit the full A Level Maths exam at the end of Year 12; so they will achieve 4 full A Levels. However, some FM students drop the FM A Level if they have underachieved in the full A Level exam at the end of Year 12, so they will achieve three full A Levels only. The rationale for the programme is that we wish to maintain a broad curriculum and it also gives the opportunity for students to make an informed choice about their three main A Levels.

We encourage students to independently develop their academic interests and for those students who do something exceptional, we award an internal Latymer EPQ. These could include researched essays for university competitions, researched presentations to peers at the academic societies, articles in the school’s History, Science and Economics magazines or more hands-on projects like designing a jet engine or F1 car for competitions.

We use our resources to maintain curriculum breadth and not to enter students for the external EPQ qualification. However, many of them do projects that are easily at that standard, and they are truly independent and not guided by teachers. We use the term internal EPQ so that admissions officers can understand the equivalent level of achievement. Shown below are two diagrams illustrating the A Level programme over the two years.

UCAS Predictions Procedures 2022

1. Predictions will be completed by the Year 12 subject teachers based on the internal Year 12 UCAS exams.
2. Predicted grades will be in the range A* to C. There are only a very small number of final A Level grades below a C, hence the decision not to predict D or E. However, we reserve the right to predict below a C if a student does not meet expectations regarding work and attendance.
3. Predictions will not be more than one grade above the achieved UCAS exam grade, in the A* to C range, unless there is exceptionally strong evidence, such as consistently high grades on exam style assessments. It is not a given that they will automatically be above the UCAS grade. Teachers have been asked to be generous, but the predictions are evidence based.
4. There will be one prediction per subject being taken at full A Level.
5. UCAS predictions will not be below the achieved UCAS exam grade.
6. Students may approach teachers and politely request to discuss their predicted grade, but staff will not improve predictions based on pleading. For example, “I need an A* to apply for”, “I will work harder next year”, “I didn’t work last year but will this year”, “I was ill during the exams”. The last point would have been covered by special exam consideration. If a genuine mistake has been made (e.g. wrong data input) the teacher will contact Mr Wakefield (Deputy Head, Sixth Form) asap. The prediction is a judgement of the subject teachers and not something to be negotiated.
7. Students will be given a printout of predicted grades in September and this information will go on the UCAS form. If any changes are made due to inputting errors, please do not rely on word of mouth – If it is not changed on the master spreadsheet (check with Mr Wakefield) then assume it’s not been changed.
8. Most students will have elected to drop a subject and therefore they will have got a grade award in that subject. Some may subsequently change their mind and decide to continue to study that subject at A2. In those cases, the prediction will be based on the AS grade and points 1 to 7 above will apply.
9. The students doing Further Maths will have been given a full Maths A Level and their predictions for Maths and Further Maths will be based on that grade. Points 1 to 7 above will also apply.
10. Parents should not contact individual subject teachers about predictions if they feel there has been an error. They should contact Mr Wakefield by email wke@latymer.co.uk. He will look into it and reply to the email, but it will not be possible to organise a meeting for parents to negotiate a higher prediction. At this time of year, we are very busy with supporting the entire year group with their university applications, and a significant number who have already left. All students need time to be individually supported and it would be wrong to reduce that time.