BBC league tables

[cairo]

No doubt you've seen the latest secondary league tables, which cover both state and private schools. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16729387" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

All seven of Gloucestershire's grammar schools are in the top 200. This is out of almost 4,000 secondary schools in England. So they are all doing a brilliant job & I hope this provides reassurance to anyone whose DC does not get their top choice GS in March. All our GSs are great. The county I grew up in doesn't have a single school in the top 200, not even the well-regarded private schools.

There's loads of interesting information if you are prepared to drill down into the individual schools' performances. They split the children into low / medium /higher attainers on entry, (I think this refers to whether they were Level 3, 4 or 5) and then show what % then reach their expected performance at GCSE. There's also some quite shocking figures on the discrepancies in outcome between "disadvantaged" children (those on free school meals or in care) as compared to the others within each school. This information is suppressed for most of the grammar schools, because they have so few in that category it would identify individual children, although no doubt the govt can see it. There's wildly different outcomes within the comprehensives though.

[capers123]

Ooh - drilling down is very interesting - especially mean teachers salary! The average teacher at Pate's gets £63600

The Added Value scores is also interesting to look at...

[cairo]

The average teacher at Pate's gets £63600

Yes, I noticed that too. Not quite sure how they can afford that. All the other schools seem to be squarely in the £35-40k average teacher's salary range....

[capers123]

The average teacher at Pate's gets £63600

It's either an error, or a generous donation from The Pate's Foundation.

[Amber]

The average teacher at Pate's gets £63600

It's either an error, or a generous donation from The Pate's Foundation.

I hope it is an error, because that is far more than a specialist SEN teacher in a school for children with profound learning difficulties would get, with the SEN allowances in there. Even some of the staff who stay overnight at a school I know very well with children whose conditions make it hard for them to go home would struggle to make that much, I think.

[Tolstoy]

Ooh - drilling down is very interesting - especially mean teachers salary! The average teacher at Pate's gets £63600

The Added Value scores is also interesting to look at...

... yes Capers I agree and it negates the argument that they only top the tables because they have a selected group of pupils.

[Stressed?Moi?]

I've been astonished at how well the grammars do in comparison with the independent schools, especially the E.B.

[Amber]

I've been astonished at how well the grammars do in comparison with the independent schools, especially the E.B.

Don't forget that the EB was imposed retrospectively, ie the students being measured against it in this cohort chose their options before it was dreamed up. It also isn't statutory even for state schools, so independents are even less likely to measure against it. Finally, the independent schools in Gloucestershire are nowhere near as selective as the grammars,and from what I can tell they do not measure value added either.

[platypus]

r

[stroudydad]

Probably going to sound very dim here but can anyone enlighten me as to what all the figures mean please?