Top schools put A-levels under threat

One of the country's most successful independent schools is considering an alternative to A-levels in a move which would undermine the credibility of the Government's sixth form reforms.

North London Collegiate School is in talks with others already offering the International Baccalaureate, a qualifi-cation recognised around the world which requires students to take a broader range of subjects and is generally recognised as more demanding than A-levels.

Meanwhile Dr Nick Tate, formerly the Government's chief exams adviser and now head at Winchester College, said he expected to choose between the IB and the reformed A-level system by the New Year. The decision, he said, was "finely balanced" and would depend on whether ministers presented a credible blueprint in the New Year for senior secondary school studies.

In February, ministers are due to publish proposals for a wholesale review of the curriculum from ages 14 to 19, including broadening studies in the sixth form. The AS-level aimed to do that, with students taking up to five subjects in their first year in the sixth form, before completing three as A-levels.

However, the real breadth it achieved was limited - around 60 per cent of this year's sixth formers took only one extra subject, most of them closely related to their other studies, while schools complained that AS-levels created an exams logjam and squeezed out other activities.

The IB, examined at the end of the sixth form like traditional A-levels, has been adopted by a number of independent schools, including Sevenoaks School, King's College School in Wimbledon and Oakham School.

Students taking the full diploma have to study six areas, three of them at or above A-level standard and three equivalent to a slimmed-down A-level. They must include their own language plus a second modern language, an arts course, a science course and a social science. The attractions of the IB include a consistent pass rate, untainted by suspicion of "grade inflation" and a traditional assessment structure, which does not overwhelm schools and pupils with exams.

Head teachers' leader David Hart predicted that more schools would look at switching to the IB unless the Government came up with a credible post-14 structure. "If the Government doesn't show it is serious, more schools are going to vote with their feet," he said.

Bernice McCabe, head at North London Collegiate School, which topped this year's A-level league tables, said: "We are certainly considering the IB, but no decisions have been made. We are at the fact-finding stage to see what advantages other schools have found."

A spokesman for the Independent Schools Council said the adoption of the IB by schools like Winchester and North London Collegiate would send a powerful message to the Government. "It would be evidence of fairly widespread dissatisfaction about the maintenance of academic rigour within A-levels," he added.