EDUCAT ION
in time, representing just one year in a school’s life – one chapter in an evolving story – and should be approached with caution, particularly as some schools don’t even appear in them, says John Attwater, principal of King’s Ely. “Not all schools are in the newspaper league tables – this is an opt-in process and many top schools decided some years ago not to take part, believing them to be highly misleading,” he explains. And he stresses that league tables are, at best, “only one tool for helping to choose a school”. He adds: “All are focused only on exam results at GCSE or A-level. They measure averages only, so broadly speaking, a school towards the top of the league tables will tend to be academically highly selective (their average child will be a high-flyer), while one lower down will recruit from a broader range of ability, but may still contain a large number of high- flyers and teach excellently.” For some children, an unashamedly academic environment can be just what they need. For others, including those who may be very able, a more mixed intake will be a better fit. “Don’t get the wrong impression from those schools that don’t have a high bar entrance exam and slightly lower GCSE scores,” says Richard Settle, head teacher at Sancton Wood School. “If you’ve got a mixed cohort, schools that are achieving above the national average are doing something pretty right,” he says. If results are OK-ish, but in gentle decline compared with a few years back, parents should be asking why. Plenty of schools will have a blip that could be down to a revamped subject, a new syllabus or even variations in pupils’ ability. In smaller schools with correspondingly diminutive year groups, it can take just a few pupils in a marginally weaker cohort to do rather worse than anticipated, so results show a significant dip – only to shoot up again the following summer when a higher-achieving group of pupils sit their exams. “Bear in mind that if you’ve got a school with one or two form entry, it only needs one or two students
not to do so well to massively skew a league table standing, so be careful on that as well,” warns Richard Settle. And if you’re still none the wiser (schools can be surprisingly reticent about the amount of detail they go into), it’s worth asking for a breakdown of grades for each subject. Most schools will be glad to share this information, as well as telling parents the number of candidates taking the exams in each subject. Again, it’s all about context. If one pupil takes GCSE German and gains a top grade, it will show
“If you’ve got a mixed cohort, schools that are achieving above the national average are doing something pretty right”
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C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
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