how do I find out how high achievers in a particular school do?

[basildonbond]

I'm hoping to compare selective schools with one which is mostly non-selective and want to see how the high achievers do - open day is tomorrow so would be great to be able to ask questions if need be

thanks

[curlew]

Have a look on here

[bsc]

As curlew said- it's detailed in the performance tables.

[Dancingdreamer]

I would ask in the non-selective school, how the high achievers are stretched. Ask for learning strategies and gifted and talented programmes. I know that my DD who is top of her class in a non-selective school is having to ask for extension work in class despite best efforts of school to keep her challenged. Would also ask non- selective how early start GCSE work. I know our local super-selective says the kids are ready to take GCSEs at end year 9 so can then spend time broadening and deepening knowledge to give head start for A levels.

Also don't believe any selective school that says that they don't want kids tutored. They say if need tutoring to get in then not the right school. Naively we followed this advice only for our DD to fail entrance exam. Then found out from friends whose kids got in that everyone was tutored for at least several months (or parents tutored!). All these tutored kids are doing fine at super-selective school despite not having been top of class in primary!

[basildonbond]

Thanks everyone

What exactly constitutes a high achiever for the purposes of those tables? Dd's done CAT tests in y5 and 6 and has been getting 141 across the board - presumably that makes her a high achiever but one of the schools I'm looking at has 55% high achievers so it seems to be quite a broad category ...

[Buggedoff]

I think it is quite a broad band. It seems to approximate to attaining L5 or higher in Sats. But it does give a good idea.

For example, my local comp gets better or equal results for its high achievers than the grammars an hour away. So although dd passed her 11 plus, the comp will have a higher ranking on our CAF than the grammar. The grammars have good sixth forms, so for some parents this would swing it. It's a matter of weighing up what is important.

[curlew]

High achievers are level 5 and up.

[wordfactory]

Ask the schools for breakdowns of the GCSE results by discipline. This should tell you how many pupils obtained an A* in each subject and you can work out if this is a good performance based on their intake.

[curlew]

Have a look here. Very enlightening.

[KiplingBag]

I would not go by the league tables on their own. Agree with Wordfactory. Get right into the nitty gritty of the subject and ask your questions. League tables on their own are not sufficient.

[bsc]

The high ability band is those with a KS2 APS of 30 and above (a level 4 is 27, level 5 is 33).

What is CAF please?

[Buggedoff]

Common application form.

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

Ask?

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

Sorry, I mean the schools. Ask the schools.

[basildonbond]

Thanks everyone

Curlew - that was v interesting reading ...

Following the open day I'm still not much the wiser ... The school is quite unapproachable and fairly complacent as they don't need to give the school a hard sell as it is always massively over-subscribed

[bsc]

Ah- thank you. Means Common Assessment Framework to me, and I've certainly never seen anything about schools applications on there!

[Dancingdreamer]

Were the kids happy? Lots of good schools are rubbish at selling themselves. In fact I worry when you get too much slick marketing. Go back and see the school on a working day.

Also ask kids what happens if they don't perform. Found out at local superselective grammar that they ditched all the kids who did not perform at GCSE (from pupil - school hid that part!) Yet the equally high performing independent said they would stand by their kids even if they messed up despite having high performers knocking at their door for 6th form.