New league tables...

[mike1880]

Anyone else had a look? They make fascinating reading, I could be there all day if I'm not careful. For example, our local comp (vying for contention as worst in B'ham) spends a staggering £10,600 per pupil ! That's twice the B'ham average and roughly the same as local indie fees (but the indie would expect high attainers to take more than 6 GCSEs each ).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11950098
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

Mike

[Reading Mum]

A look at my region confirms why I am on this site. If we don't make it to Kendrick then it will have to be an Indie

[scary mum]

I know, they make me heave a sigh of relief that DS got through, and enormous sympathy for those who are every bit as bright, or brighter than, my DS, but didn't do it on the day. I'm sure those children will do well wherever they go, but it must be hard to see the league tables at this time of year. I know that league tables aren't everything, but there is such a huge divide between the schools.

[JaneEyre]

Anyone else had a look? They make fascinating reading, I could be there all day if I'm not careful. For example, our local comp (vying for contention as worst in B'ham) spends a staggering £10,600 per pupil ! That's twice the B'ham average and roughly the same as local indie fees (but the indie would expect high attainers to take more than 6 GCSEs each ).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11950098
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

Mike

Hi Mike,

I am not yet good at deciphering all these kinds of tables, as I know that many factors have an effect on all this ranking (for example such school opted for an iGCSE instead of a GCSE, etc)

But I have been surprised to find that if we consider the English Bacc just in Birmingham, we can see that in the top 200, KEVIHS (independent) comes top with 93% (well done to them!) then KES and Handswordth girls grammar with 91%, CHB just behind with 90%, CH girls with 87%, QM with 84%, Edgbaston High for girls 76%, AGS (Telford) with 74%...

Where is Five ways? How come it is not listed there? And Aston? And the Sutton Coldfiled grammars?

I am perplexed

Please, could you shed some light on how to understand these figures?

link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16729801" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mike1880]

The table on the BBC page only covers the top 200, Five Ways and the others were below that. Sutton Coldfield got 69%, BV 67%, FW 63%, Aston 62%, Handsworth 41%. (It strikes me as odd, by the way, that people can take average 14.6 GCSEs each at Five Ways and still not get enough to cover the EB when they manage it on 10-11 GCSEs each at KES, KEHS and CHB, although humanities are optional at all three as far as I know.)

It's the underlying DofE information that's really interesting - however, you have to look at each school individually on the DofE website for that level of detail. Things like percent of cohort rated low/middle/high attainer (from KS1 I think); percent L/M/H attainers achieving expected progress in English and Maths, number of GCSE and equivalents entered by L/M/H, average grade and number of GCSE points obtained likewise by H/M/L (IGCSEs seem to be included). There's a very small amount of comparitive info on independent schools for the first time which makes for some interesting reading.

Mike

[anupreet]

Hi everyone and anyone,

I am a bit new to the system and find it a bit boggling as to which to look at, BBC league tables or FT ranking and can u explain, what is the difference between FT ranking and BBC league tables and which is more complete and genuine, and which gives a better understanding, also what to look for at 11plus level - the GCSE scores or A levels of the schools.


Thanks

Anupreet.

[mike1880]

When I was looking at schools for ours, I used the FT table to judge the academic standard of indies and grammar schools and the GCSE statistics to judge the academic standard of comps.

GCSE statistics don't tell you much about indies or GSs because 100% of their pupils (barring the occasional individual) get 5 A*-C and the total GCSE points used for GCSE league tables mostly tells you how many GCSEs they took, not whether they got good grades.

Conversely, not many comps get into the FT table so you usually have to use GCSE statistics to assess those. The English Bacc wasn't around when I was looking at schools, but it looks as though it hugely simplifies the GCSE assessment by giving you a single number that makes it obvious which schools are doing a good range of academic GCSEs. Until schools get up to speed and adjust their GCSE option mix to drive people down the EBac route, anyway...

But as I say, that's all about academic standards (or, it might be argued, about how they select their intake) and obviously there's more to choosing the right school for your child than that.

Mike

[anupreet]

Thanks Mike for making things a bit clearer.

[Looking for help]

Does anyone know how many points there are for GCSE or A Level in order to calculate the average points score? I can't seem to find this anywhere.
Thanks

[Amber]

http://www.education.gov.uk/performance ... gsys.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Will give you the GCSE ones.

Large pinch of salt recommended with all league tables IMHO. Lies, damned lies, statistics and anything prefixed by the words 'UK Government Official Figures'.