Re: What the Fark 2: That Was... Interesting.
I may actually have a little bit of sympathy for the school. They may be trying to give honest appraisals, while combating the effects of “grade inflation.”
When a student applies at the next level, be it a competitive high school, college, or whatever, the school s/he applies at may have no idea what the grading standards at the current school are. If the school in their grading standards, their, say 3.2 GPA may represent the same academic achievement as some other school's 4.0. So by applying rigorous grading standards, they may be hurting their students' chances at the next level.
The school described in the link appears to be for relatively young students, so I don't see the value in letter or number grades at all. But whether or not they give letter or number grades it would seem that a simple narrative in each subject would suffice, not a second report card.
I mentor a high school student. I would call him a solid, above average, but not outstanding, student. One term his GPA was 4.167. On a four point system! Some of his courses were a higher track than most students take, but in no cases was it and AP or IB course, and in all cases there was a more advanced class. And he didn't even get all A's.