WGGS' performance in the DfE league tables - impressive

[Guest55]

Was it? I don't ever remember hearing or reading anywhere that WGGS was set up to cater for middle ability children. As far as I know, it seeks to cater to all children, but is unashamedly academic in its focus. If I had a struggling child or a child with no interest in studying, I probably wouldn't send them to WGGS, because they'd probably be quite bored and the academic ethos wouldn't really suit them. (Maybe I'd make an exception for a child gifted in art, as the art provision is really excellent.)

It's partially selective - you told us that - so it should cater for all abilities equally which it clearly does not.

[rosetta]

It's partially selective - you told us that - so it should cater for all abilities equally which it clearly does not.

Your post makes no sense and you seem to be disagreeing with your previous posts.

You previously argued that 'middle ability children' were 'the very ones [the school] was aimed at. You now claim - as this has been shot down as utter nonsense - that the school 'should cater for all abilities equally' apparently because it's partially selective - though why you think that a desire to cater to the needs of all its pupils is somehow unique to partially selective schools, I have no idea (don't all schools try to do this?).

The second part of your statement is also meaningless. The likelihood that the Progress 8 scores for different groups across a school will be absolutely identical are extremely small - we're talking about actual, real children here, not identical widgets, and so yes, of course there will be some difference. But in both cases, whether you're talking about high-ability OR middle-ability children, the Progress 8 scores show that actually both groups of children do considerably better at WGGS than they would be expected to do based on prior attainment alone.

I'm not really clear why you are so keen to do down the efforts of the girls and staff at the school. It's not perfect - which school is? - but as a parent I'm very happy with the school. Do you have kids there? If not, can I suggest that you don't really know what you are talking about? I certainly don't post on positive threads about other schools which I have neither attended personally nor have children at, in order to criticise them. And if you are going to attempt to criticise a school your children don't attend, for reasons that remain mysterious, you could at least try to post posts that don't contradict your other posts, and that make some sort of logical argument.

Thanks.

[Guest55]

Your post flagged up the school and I just interpreted the data - if you don't like the FACT that disadvantaged children arent doing well that's not my problem. It is not serving the needs of all children as a partially selective school should - it is not 'impressive'.

I know nothing other than the data which your post brought to my attention but the school is not as impressive as your post claims. I'll look more at the data later when I have time.

[neo1232]

That is the problem - how many schools which can be classify as partially selective ? any other schools apart then few schools in SW Herts ?

First you apply criteria so 99%+ schools will remove from list and then you claim highest performing in whole country - which is really misleading

Some of the non selective school has done far better than them - for example Wembley High Technology College for Progress 8

I can understand your reservation to compare with full selective schools but on same ground please explain why they can not be comparable with non selective schools ?
I feel that compare to non selective schools, they have really advantage with more bright students.

it is good but is it not cherry-pick moment

Why they are only comparing with partial selective school - why not compare with Non selective school.

If I'd done that, people would (rightly) be complaining that that was an unfair comparison, as 65 pupils, so about a third of the year, are selected.

Equally, however, it is not fair to compare the results with fully-selective schools as it isn't one. There are certainly many girls at WGGS who would never make it into an equivalent grammar school, say HBS, had they been required to sit an entrance exam. Which is one of the reasons we chose the school, because we felt it was a less pressured environment than a school like HBS, my old school, which I found too focused on exams for my liking these days.

[rosetta]

Just seen the responses to my posts.

neo1232 - I don't live in Wembley, and this part of the forum doesn't deal with Wembley, but all I can say is that if Wembley High Technology College has excellent Progress 8 scores, then well done Wembley High Technical College! And all other schools that help pupils to get good results.

I'm still a bit mystified why posters who don't have children at the school are so keen to do it down - jealousy? Did posters' children fail to gain places at WGGS? I don't really get it.

If you have positive things to say about other schools, then by all means start a thread in the relevant part of the forum praising those schools. I'm sure those constructive sorts of comments would be very helpful.

Guest55 - you seem keen to focus on the statistically very small numbers of disadvantaged pupils at the school. Yet you choose to ignore the high numbers of EAL pupils - around 50% of the intake - who do extremely well.

I think if you are a parent considering WGGS, or any school, then you need to decide if it will be right for your child. What the data show is that if your child is unashamedly academic, they will do very well indeed at WGGS, given the Progress 8 Score of 0.96 for high prior attainers - which is extremely high. (Compare that to the Progress 8 Score for high prior attainers at Parmiter's, of 0.03 for example, in most respects a very similar school.) My point remains - if you are a parent looking locally, WGGS provides an excellent standard of education, and one which most parents of girls at the school are very happy with.

[neo1232]

rosetta - I did not say anything bad about school - I have only objection is word "highest performing" - which is not real truth as per me

if you still feel that it was blow your trumpets moment then best of luck .. no further comments from my side for this subject ..

[rhiane]

Rosetta, You have every right to be a proud parent, I really can't understand why there aren't more positive replies?

Your school is very high up in the league tables and both school and parents are entitled to celebrate that!

A few months ago I replied to a post about Upton Court Grammar who are also very high in the league tables and had the same sort of negative replies.