league tables with a difference

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sj355
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league tables with a difference

Post by sj355 »

Just for info: The Financial Times has published (10/3/07) a league of schools after subtracting from the results soft A levels (Media studies, Psycholology, Pet Care (!) etc)

This is as response to the warning by Cambridge (appearing on its webstite) and other leading Universities that applicants with soft/vocational A levels will not be accepted and students should stick to core traditional A levels

In terms of spotting schools in our area mostly, the resulting league for the best 100 schools in the country is spectacular in terms of turning some things upside down: NLC is 7th, QE is 11th, HABS for Bs 21, HBS 30, HABS for Gs 37, Merchant Taylors 42, UCS 45, Highgate 51, and Latymer on 71. Oh, and St Michael's is nowhere to be seen! I have the full list of the best 100 printed out so if I have not mentioned your favourite please let me know and I will have a look. Food for thought...
sj355
jen s

Post by jen s »

dame alice owens?
sj355
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Post by sj355 »

jen s wrote:dame alice owens?
Not on the top 100 either.
sj355
sj355
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Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 4:07 pm
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Post by sj355 »

What exactly does the Cambridge guide for Teachers say?

http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergr ... ts/#course


"The increased breadth introduced by the AS level curriculum has generally been welcomed at Cambridge. However, students wishing to apply should choose a combination of subjects – either contrasting or complementary – which gives a good preparation for their selected course. We generally prefer applicants to have taken certain subjects because we believe that they are more likely to provide an effective preparation for study at the University of Cambridge.

The list below details the A level subjects that provide a less effective preparation for our courses. To be a realistic applicant, a student will normally need to be offering two traditional academic subjects (ie two subjects not on this list). For example, Mathematics, History and Business Studies would be an acceptable combination of subjects for a number of our courses. However, History, Business Studies and Media Studies would not normally be considered to be acceptable as this combination contains only one subject not from the list below. Similarly, for students studying for the International Baccalaureate not more than one of the subjects listed should be taken at Higher Level to count as part of the Diploma.

A levels
IB

Accounting
Art and Design
Business Studies
Communication Studies
Dance
Design and Technology
Drama/Theatre Studies
Film Studies
Health and Social Care
Home Economics
Information and Communication Technology
Leisure Studies
Media Studies
Music Technology
Performance Studies
Performing Arts
Photography
Physical Education
Sports Studies
Travel and Tourism
Business and Management
Design and Technology
Information Technology in a Global Society
Theatre Arts
Visual Arts
    sj355
    SteveDH
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    Post by SteveDH »

    Have a look here for links to the top 100 and a top 1000


    http://www.ft.com/reports/top1000schools2007

    and http://media.ft.com/cms/90aac720-ce68-1 ... 9e2340.pdf

    although for the 1000 looks like you need to join... but the 100's freely available.. well was for me :-)
    sj355
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    Post by sj355 »

    although for the 1000 looks like you need to join... but the 100's freely available.. well was for me :-)
    I had exactly the same experience when I tried for the 1,000
    sj355
    SteveDH
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    Post by SteveDH »

    jen s wrote:dame alice owens?
    strangely it now just let me have a look... weird...

    anyway dao was 174

    and St Michael's is 282

    Steve
    Guest

    GRRRRRRRRRRRR league tables

    Post by Guest »

    The difference of point something of a percentage on the number of students achieveing A grades can shift a school up and down the table several places.

    I don't think it makes as much difference( as some of you seem to believe) to the potential prospects of your child where the school comes in the top few hundred. All these schools have good teaching and pupil standards. If your child has the potential they'll probably achieve good results at most of these schools, but if they don't have the ability within them, it wont help them very much to be at a so called top rank school.

    I strongly feel parents should not be over influenced by league tables because these can be manipulated and give scant indication of how a child will mature, learn, and become. The Oftsted reports, local reputation, etc should be, in my opinion, much more persuasive.
    sj355
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    Re:league tables

    Post by sj355 »

    League tables are for info only. This one gives you an idea of the quality (or depth + relevance) of the A levels the students of these schools take with them when they leave. Apparently it makes a difference to the admissions in Universities and on whether your application will be taken seriously or not. As such it reflects how well the teachers in each of these schools advise their students in choosing the appropriate A levels. It is just one more indicator. If you find league tables boring and worthless then no problem; obviously it is optional whether to look at them. Obviously many people do find them interesting otherwise the FT would not bother constucting one more yet for its own readers! In any case there is plenty of instructions of how to read the tables by the newspaper; so people can make up their own mind

    As a postnote The Manchester Grammar school which features on the third place of the FT league must now be an avid subscriber to the FT! In the official statistics it languishes somewhere very low in the top 1000 schools!
    sj355
    SteveDH
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    Post by SteveDH »

    One thing that I find hard to do with legue tables is compare a selective to a non selective school... ok you've got the value added scores, but what I really wanted to know was if my daughter went to the local comp, could she achieve
    very high marks.. i.e 10 a* at GCE (assuming she worked hard enough etc).

    The problem their is is that there is no indicator as to whether the scores they have is because everyone ends up with an average mark or that there are some high achievers that are canceld out by the low achievers.

    I'm not sure if that makes any sense.. but if the top 10% at my local comp got the same average score as a grammer which selects the top 10% on entry then that would imply you could acheve the same at either...
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