Pate's - State Secondary of the Year

[Bemily]

...according to the Sunday Times. Will have to find out on Sunday what reasons they give.

[FluffyCat]

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[stroudydad]

Well done to Pate's, especially the pupils.

[qip001]

It feels very nice to be part of this excitement as our kids are joining a fantastic school.
How is the new head doing? Would be interesting to hear from Pates parents

[Sunshine 11]

A shame such schools are not truely accessible to all.

It should be a model for ALL of our state schools.

[StJamesDad]

A shame such schools are not truely accessible to all.

It should be a model for ALL of our state schools.

I do not want to sound stuck up, but if such schools were accessible to all, surely they would not be the schools they are, would they?

I agree that it should be a model for all state schools, but thats just never going to happen (all state schools be up to near that standard I mean) in this country.

Well done Pate's. Off to get a Sunday Times at the petrol station

[dr.watson]

http://pp.include-digital.com/schools-o ... -secondary" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Amber]

The whole business of ranking schools into league tables is most unpalatable to me; and that particular list makes me very uncomfortable indeed, as all the previous 'winners' are south of Birmingham, bar one, which is in it. I assume this means that children are not as clever 'up north'? Or teachers are 'worse'?

I am starting to despair for our children, Pates pupils or not, that the world they are growing up in seems to be one where everything is measured, assessed, ranked, pitted against its 'competitors' and 'held to account' for 'failure'. Very sad imho and loses sight totally of any idea of why we educate children in the first place.

[EmeraldE]

I think we should count ourselves lucky to have so much information.
In Northern Ireland parents are not given access to league tables, nor statistical info on exam results, therefore have no frame of reference when choosing their grammars/schools.
They have to base their choice on if their child passes the transfer test and if they can actually get them to a particular school (transport can be an issue)
Even in inspection reports you will only be told if the school is above/below/on a par, with similiar schools (no statistical information). I know which I would prefer. However, I can see the benefit of the NI system. No super-selection, but then almost all kids sit the test and approx 1/3 of all secondary school kids pass and go to grammar, unlike in England. More grammars, less info about their performance....word of mouth does it.

[KS10]

The problem with league tables is that in some schools (all schools?) the teachers are then bullied into doing anything and everything to ensure that that pupil x achieves a target that has been assigned to them even if they have no aptitude for that subject. I was amazed when I saw the results for my subject at my new school. I thought that they had somehow cracked it, that they had the magic formula for getting students to not just pass but pass well. I found out pretty soon that it was called retaking; not just once, but several times if necessary to avoid having to answer to those in charge. I left!