It seems that for quite a few who didn't pass the 11+ that Coopers is consideration a worthy alternative.
I'm not sure how that stacks up in terms of their GCSE results which to be fair IMO are nothing to rave about.
For 2017 38% achieved 5 or more 9-4 grades A-C which is below the national average of 39.7%.
Do parents favour it is purely because those that are in the grammar stream do well. I'm not sure its necessarily true that everyone else does.
Am also a bit confused as to how their published English and Maths results ( in their prospectus and at open day) are 83% and 71% respectively achieving 9-4, but yet when you add in 3 more GCSE'S to get the 5 that is used by DFe for league table comparison, it is dragged all the way down to 38%. Can anyone that has any knowledge of the school and / or an opinion of these results provide any insight ?
Thanks

I know a number of DCs who’ve ended up at Coopers and been happy. It does have a reputation for low level disruption in class but I don’t have a DC there so that information is only second hand.

Looking at the data https://www.compare-school-performance. ... ool/136464. They had 58 with prior high attainment out of a cohort of 197. The government tool says the whole cohort got 60% 4 or above in English and maths so don’t know where they got the figures you mention. The Progress 8 overall is zero which is average but for high attainers it is higher and middle attainers lower at -0.12 (between various confidence levels). The best progress 8 score is for those with low prior attainment so it seems these are the DCs getting the most out of the school.

Looking at the number of GCSEs that are sat as they do between 8 and 9 it gives little room to ditch any poor grades for the purposes of the progress and attainment 8 figures.

Data only shows one angle and it is about whether it is a good fit for your DC.

You get the 60% passing English and Maths, with English at 83% and maths at 71%, because not everyone who passes maths passes English and vice versa.

Coopers was a very popular choice amongst children I know who didn't pass the 11+ when they looked around last autumn, but not so popular with their parents, but I'm not sure why.

They only have 4 lessons a day of an hour and a quarter, which is why we didn't consider it for our daughter - she would have struggled to stay focused for that long, it's a long time before that subject comes round again, and if you have a not so good teacher you are stuck with them for quite a while!

However, my DS had a friend with a brother there who did really well and chose to stay into the sixth form.

I look at the latest data and it says English at 4 or above at 79% and maths at 66% which are not far from what is claimed, but still updated and slightly lower figures.

I say this, having been my school back in the 1980s when it didn’t have high expectations of any of its pupils and it was as a complete shock that out of 180 in my year, 40 ended up in sixth form and 18 ended up at university. Times change I think and they generally have higher expectations all round.