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Friday September 29th, 2017
I hope the new academic year started smoothly for you and your children. As we took a break in August with our newsletters, this one is longer than usual, packed with useful advice for parents and covers the following topics:
“The top performing independent schools for GCSE and controversy of the league tables”,
“Setting the new school year off to a flying start”,
“4 ways parents can excel their children’s classroom performance”.
I hope you enjoy reading it!
The Top Performing Independent Schools for GCSE and Controversy of the League Tables
Continuing on the subject of the most famous schools and universities, we thought now would be the perfect time to discuss this year’s top performing independent schools – and whether such results published by the media should be taken into consideration during the school selection process.
Despite the new marking system designed to make the GCSEs even tougher for secondary school students, almost two thirds of the pupils attending independent schools across the country were awarded an A, or 7 and above this year.
Now, for those that aren’t all too familiar with the new numerical grading system, this has been introduced from last year to raise the bar in three primary subjects – English Literature, English Language and Mathematics. The traditional A* to G grades in these subjects have now been replaced with grades one to nine – nine being top marks and anything above a seven being equivalent to an A. Other subjects will follow suit later.
You can find more information about GCSEs, A-Levels and IBs in our video on our YouTube channel here
In terms of this year’s results, it was recently revealed by the Telegraph that while an astounding 62.9% of entries at the UK’s independent council (ISC) schools had achieved top grades, only 20% of state school entries had achieved grades of this level.
GCSE Revision
We give you the ten schools achieving the top grades this year. Warning – I do not recommend that parents are guided by the results of the league tables only. These results are often achieved through tough selection on entry with not much value added during the schooling, so please never be guided just by the league tables in your school choices.
Also bear in mind that a number of top schools do not submit their results for every league table at all.
Notably, a number of top performing schools such as Wycombe Abbey with 97.1% of A*-A, or above 7, Cheltenham Ladies’ College with over 90%, Eton with 95.6% and Radley with 85%, are missing from the Telegraph table here.
To explain simply the reason for why some schools don’t submit their results, here is what Radley College had to say in the statement issued this year:
Press Statement: Radley and League Tables
League tables have always encouraged the belief that a school’s position says something important about the education it provides; in doing so they have ignored the fact that the most important things in education are immeasurable. In recent years, however, the shortcomings of the information they use have become unacceptable and for this reason Radley will again not be publishing A level and GCSE results in August. League tables are compiled on the basis of raw results which, through inconsistent marking, are often unreliable; only a process of re‐marks and appeals by November ensures an accurate picture. Secondly, league tables now attempt to compare different exams – A levels with IB and Pre‐U, or IGCSE and GCSE – and the UCAS tariffs employed have not satisfactorily established equivalence, to the detriment of schools sitting A levels. Lastly, league tables do not recognise those schools which encourage pupils to take rigorous subjects at A level and which do not re‐select the entry for the Sixth Form. As in previous years, Radley will publish its examination results on its website from November, once appeals and remarks are completed.
August 2017” I must say, I personally can see their point. However, league tables are useful for some things and not least for identifying what works and what doesn’t in how the results are achieved.
What is interesting about the list below, apart from the fact that all ten are the well-known “hot houses”, is that 7 out of the 10 top ranking schools are Girls only, while the other three are Boys only. In fact, only one mixed school got into the top 25. Here are the 10 independent ISC schools that achieved the highest GCSE grades this year according to the Telegraph League Tables:
While we’ve only listed the top 10 here, ISC has in fact revealed that a total of 24 private schools had 90% of their students receive a grade A or 7 and above.
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“ REGENCY EDUCATION WAS ABLE TO HELP US WITH EVERY STEP OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS ENSURING THE EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS OF OUR CHILDREN - AN INVALUABLE SERVICE. ”
