O levels vs O grades - former Scottish qualifications

[GusB]

The "Camelon - is it worth keeping" thread is veering off-topic, so I thought I'd start this thread.

When I was at secondary school I was on the "border" between O-grades and Standard Grades. I did five standard grades, but two of my subjects were still of the older style O-grades. I attended secondary school from 1986 until 1992. Since then, Standard grades have since further replaced by "nationals" in Scotland.

My parents both say that they did O-levels at school in the 1960s, yet there are some who believe that O-levels were purely an English/Welsh/Northern Irish thing. Who is telling the truth?

 

[PeterC]

It seems unlikely but there is no technical reason why they couldn't have been entered with one of the English or Welsh exam boards. More likely, because the national press has always concentrated on the English qualifications, they have just become used to referring to O-grades as O-levels.

 

[Senex]

Was it perhaps a school that did English O- and A-Levels to make it easier for its pupils to apply to English universities? The other way round I remember that one had to get English qualifications attested if one wanted to apply to a Scottish university.

 

[edwin_m]

I did O grades in 1981 having moved from England to Scotland three years earlier. The Scottish system started secondary school a year later (except for those born in September-December, as the cut-off date for the years was also different). So languages and sciences were studied for one year less and it is likely that the content of O levels in those subjects was more advanced.

At the time anyway, Scottish Highers were only a year after O grades and there was something called the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies for those that were heading for an English university.

 

[GusB]

It seems unlikely but there is no technical reason why they couldn't have been entered with one of the English or Welsh exam boards. More likely, because the national press has always concentrated on the English qualifications, they have just become used to referring to O-grades as O-levels.

I did wonder, but the last time the subject came up in conversation my dad was adamant they were O-levels. He can be rather stubborn, though.

Was it perhaps a school that did English O- and A-Levels to make it easier for its pupils to apply to English universities? The other way round I remember that one had to get English qualifications attested if one wanted to apply to a Scottish university.

Definitely not. They went to bog-standard secondary schools in working class areas. While there was nothing to stop either of them going to university had they wanted to, in those days it wouldn't have been an expectation.

 

[Hackneyite]

The "Camelon - is it worth keeping" thread is veering off-topic, so I thought I'd start this thread.

When I was at secondary school I was on the "border" between O-grades and Standard Grades. I did five standard grades, but two of my subjects were still of the older style O-grades. I attended secondary school from 1986 until 1992. Since then, Standard grades have since further replaced by "nationals" in Scotland.

My parents both say that they did O-levels at school in the 1960s, yet there are some who believe that O-levels were purely an English/Welsh/Northern Irish thing. Who is telling the truth?

Your parents! This thread has got me raking in old cupboards and my mid-60s certificate is simply labelled ‘Ordinary’ but we called them O’Levels and they were awarded by the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Department!

 

[Millisle]

The public examination system for schools in Scotland was established as the Scottish Leaving Certificate in the late C19th, awarded at Higher and Lower Grade. The structure was overhauled in the early '60s and the Leaving Certificate replaced by the Scottish Certificate of Education; Higher Grade was retained and Lower Grade replaced by Ordinary Grade, with 'Ordinary' borrowed from the English system as a less patronising term than 'Lower'. A similar view would later see 'Ordinary' replaced by 'Standard'. 'Level' was never used officially for Ordinary or O Grade. It was as suggested up thread already existing public and media familiarity with the expression 'O Level' that saw its widespread colloquial and inaccurate use in Scotland. As a teacher it used to irritate me considerably that a number of colleagues, who should have known better, themselves used the wrong designation.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Spot on above.
Lower, Ordinary, Standard, National 3/4/5 - I just hope they are never EVER going to be called “regular” Grades.

 

[route101]

Interestingly enough i passed a private school in Scotland that offered Sixth form . Cant remember where .
Some scottish colleges offered GCSEs .
For me in Scotland at my schools the cut off was 1st of MARCH to March for what year you were in , is that case normally?

 

[GusB]

Interestingly enough i passed a private school in Scotland that offered Sixth form . Cant remember where .
Some scottish colleges offered GCSEs .
For me in Scotland at my schools the cut off was 1st of MARCH to March for what year you were in , is that case normally?

I'm not sure of the exact cut-off date.

We had a strange situation when I was in (I think) first year of secondary school. There were two brothers, a year apart, that had moved into the area halfway through the year. Ordinarily, anyone coming from an English school could expect to be put back a year, but in this case both brothers ended up in the same class.

 

[Millisle]

Interestingly enough i passed a private school in Scotland that offered Sixth form . Cant remember where .
Some scottish colleges offered GCSEs .
For me in Scotland at my schools the cut off was 1st of MARCH to March for what year you were in , is that case normally?

1 March is the nominal date relative to a child's fifth birthday that determines the year of enrolment for Primary 1 in August, but it is possible to seek early enrolment, though education authorities tend to discourage it and it is not an entitlement. Deferred entry to the start date following the school year in which the child is five is possible, but not common nowadays.

Private boarding schools in Scotland, patterned after the English 'public' school model, generally exclusively or mainly enter their pupils for GCSEs and A Levels, rather than use certification by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the public body that has a monopoly on Scottish school examinations (also used in FE quite widely). Scottish private day schools, mainly in the four large cities and former Grant Aided schools (= Direct Grant in England), that had to go fully private or join the local authority, generally exclusively or mainly use Scottish qualifications.

 

[reb0118]

My mother is adamant that she sat O'Levels even after I found her certificate that clearly stated Ordinary Grades (as do mine as well as Higher Grades). Seemingly I've now been disinherited. Don't get me started on burglary.