- How many ran IB AND A-levels at the same school giving their students a choice.
- How many which only ran IB were academically selective schools (i.e. only accept strong, smart students and reject those who are weak and who are below certain skill levels.)
- How many students chose to take A-levels compared to IB in schools that ran both curriculums.
The following were the results:
81% of the 48 UK schools ran both the A-levels and IB, 19% ran just the IB. Of the 19% all were academic selective schools. In no case did pupils doing the IB exceed those doing A-levels where both were offered. E.g. Ardingly College where 74% did A-levels and 26% did IB.
It should also be noted that two of the schools listed on the website (Brockenhursh and Bolitho) School had no student population whatsoever, in other words they were listed as running IB, but in fact it appeared the school was either non existant or yet to open.
In summary:
Clearly the majority of schools that choose to run IB, choose to run it alongside the A-levels so that there students have a choice. This is something that the ESF cannot do, therefore it is leaving no choice to their students. All the schools that only ran IB, more interestingly however, were academically selective schools meaning that they (like schools that run IB here in HK) can weed out the students which are too weak for the program and accept only those of high academic skill. ESF schools however are non-selective which means they will run IB without consideration for the weaker students. Finally, it was clear from looking at the figures on the individual UK school websites that the majority of students chose to take A-levels over IB.