WGGS' performance in the DfE league tables - impressive

[rosetta]

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.

[Hera]

I do of course agree that parents should choose the school their children will be happiest at, as I did. Parents of boys, for example, may well find that WGGS is not the best school for their child!

Although both my girls bemoaned the fact that they couldn't go to WGSB as it is easier to get to, allows children to have their phones during the school day and until recently had a climbing wall although no-one got to use it!

[RedPanda]

Then by all means start a thread to blow the trumpet of the school your child is at!

Lots of somewhat mean-spirited posts here, attempting to discredit the school or the excellent results achieved by its pupils. As a parent, I'm very happy.

I await the unveiling of the gaudy plastic banner (that adorns many of the local primary schools in my area) boasting of league table status and OFSTED inspection results. Joking of course. In this climate of ever decreasing school funding, blowing your own trumpet is probably a necessary survival technique nowadays. Keep blowing that trumpet, WGGS!!!

No surprise an all-girls school is doing well though. Selection by gender is pretty decisive advantage/disadvantage. Girl power!!!

[Guest55]

And if you click on the link, it comes fifth out of a long list of schools that are almost entirely grammar schools! Not bad for a school that is not a fully-selective school.

You can't have your cake and eat it - you want to compare it to grammar schools in terms of intake, but don't want to acknowledge that actually even if judged against full-selective schools, it is one of the best.

Yes but that is misleading - it is not a league table ranking as the confidence intervals are not all the same size. It is doing FAR less well for middle ability children - the very ones it was aimed at.

[Amber]

League tables of educational results tend to show that high-achieving children achieve highly.

What happens to the rest is generally less of a done-deal.

[loopylala]

Lots of somewhat mean-spirited posts here

? I posted in agreement to Hera's post "I am very skeptical about any claims based on performance tables and generally ignore them". Is there a particular reason you think my post is mean spirited but not Hera's?

Then by all means start a thread to blow the trumpet of the school your child is at!

Given how heavily oversubscribed my DCs primary is, I don't think I need to do any "trumpet blowing", tbh.

[rosetta]

Sorry, loopylala, my comment was not aimed at you alone, hence my reference to 'lots of posts'!

Glad you're happy with your dcs' school - as it should be.

[rosetta]

League tables of educational results tend to show that high-achieving children achieve highly.

What happens to the rest is generally less of a done-deal.

No, it's comparing them to how other high-achieving children achieve. (Try saying that after a few drinks - quite a tongue-twister!)

[rosetta]

It is doing FAR less well for middle ability children - the very ones it was aimed at.

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.)

But that's not exactly news - the school only offers academic A Levels, no vocational courses at all, so if your child looked to be one who was not going to enjoy traditional academic subjects, you'd pick one of the other excellent local schools, which we in S Herts are fortunate to have so many of.

[rosetta]

No surprise an all-girls school is doing well though. Selection by gender is pretty decisive advantage/disadvantage. Girl power!!!

Very true!