Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selectives

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herty
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Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selectives

Post by herty »

http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... e-rankings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

According to the Guardian,

Watford Grammar School for Girls had largest proportions of A* or A grades in English, geography, art, maths and music

Watford Grammar School for Girls recorded the most spectacular set of top grades among schools of its type in England, according to a study of last year's GCSE results by the Guardian and the analysts FFT.

Watford Grammar, which is not a grammar school but an academy, had the largest proportions of pupils awarded the top A* and A grades in English, geography, art and design, maths and music among non-selective state schools in England, as well as top 10 places for the percentage of pupils awarded top grades in history and languages.

In several cases its results ranked alongside the best selective state and independent schools, with 96.5% of entrants awarded A* and A in music, and 85% in geography.
herty
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by herty »

Pretty impressive.
ToadMum
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by ToadMum »

herty wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... e-rankings

According to the Guardian,

Watford Grammar School for Girls had largest proportions of A* or A grades in English, geography, art, maths and music

Watford Grammar School for Girls recorded the most spectacular set of top grades among schools of its type in England, according to a study of last year's GCSE results by the Guardian and the analysts FFT.

Watford Grammar, which is not a grammar school but an academy, had the largest proportions of pupils awarded the top A* and A grades in English, geography, art and design, maths and music among non-selective state schools in England, as well as top 10 places for the percentage of pupils awarded top grades in history and languages.

In several cases its results ranked alongside the best selective state and independent schools, with 96.5% of entrants awarded A* and A in music, and 85% in geography.
Congratulations to the Watford Girls :D

But surely the Watford "grammar" schools are actually partially- (academically-)selective, rather than non-selective, otherwise what are the entrance exams that people post about on this forum?
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Rob Clark
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by Rob Clark »

Yes, they are – 25%. And a further percentage on musical ability I believe, but not certain about this.

They are both brilliant schools and deserve congratulations for their results. It is, however, incorrect to describe them as 'non-selective'.
herty
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by herty »

True - however a league table of semi-selectives would be a very small one! And then you'd have to decide how to compare schools with a different % of selected pupils.

What is relevant, as far as this particular part of the forum is concerned, is that WGGS presumably out-performed other local semi-selectives, too eg DAO, Parmiters and Watford Boys.

But the figures won't include fully-selective ie 'true' grammars such as HBS or QE.
herty
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by herty »

Also, those who have dds at the school will be pleased to see that standards remain high. I say this as I think that the results relate to the first year of entry after selection dropped from 35 to 25%. But I might be wrong in this?! I did wonder if that would impact on results at all - it seems not.
tense
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by tense »

Super results, but out-performs other local semi-selectives? Depends on what measure you favour!

2013 - 5 GCSEs including Maths & English

Parmiter's - 97%
Watford Boys - 96%
DAO - 94%
Watford Girls -94%

I'm sure other measures could be used to re-order that list. But why split hairs? All fab schools.
Rob Clark
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by Rob Clark »

herty wrote:a league table of semi-selectives would be a very small one
Indeed, and equally I'm not claiming for one moment that the results aren't excellent. However, the Education Editor of The Guardian really should know better than to call it a 'non-selective' school. It is not. No school which selects a percentage of its pupils on an academic basis qualifies for the description 'non-selective'.
herty
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by herty »

Absolutely agree, tense. :)
herty
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Re: Watford Girls tops GCSE rankings for state non-selective

Post by herty »

Rob Clark wrote:
Indeed, and equally I'm not claiming for one moment that the results aren't excellent. However, the Education Editor of The Guardian really should know better than to call it a 'non-selective' school. It is not. No school which selects a percentage of its pupils on an academic basis qualifies for the description 'non-selective'.
That's somewhat unfair on the editor of the Guardian. Semi-selectives are always classified as 'comprehensives' in all the league tables - that's because there's no way of easily clarifying whether you're talking about 10% selective based on sports ability, 25% on an academic exam, 100% on religion etc etc - there are so many variables, and arguably any form of selection improves results, even if it's not across the board, or even based on academic criteria - it is still a form of 'hoop-jumping' - that will ensure the 'don't-cares' about education won't send their child there. And of course, even if you got rid of all forms of selection, you'd still have selection, based on property prices, which I personally believe is a lot less fair, as the child themselves has no hope at all of getting a place based on their own brains or hard work, but only on the depth of their parents' pockets.

So I think the current compromise on how things are described is as good as you can reasonably expect.
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