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Secondary education

2014 GCSE league tables

219 replies

MaeMobley · 25/01/2015 19:05

When do these get published? I see from the BBC website that it was January last year.

OP posts:
thehumanjam · 26/01/2015 20:11

It's supposed to be some time this month.

sparklyrhian0108 · 30/01/2015 12:01

Found some GCSE tables for independent schools here;

sparklyrhian0108 · 30/01/2015 12:01
noblegiraffe · 30/01/2015 13:54

Full league tables are on the BBC website, if you go to the education section.

SignoraLiviaBurlando · 30/01/2015 14:09

This website is very useful as it goes behind the headline stats and give more in depth info. if your DC is not one of the highest attainers 9oe actually, even if they are, you should be more interested whether the high, medium and low attainers ( at KS2) make expect progress. Far more relevant that the headline figure.

TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 14:46

The league tables for Secondary schools are always published right at the end of January.

Yet again, the content has been decided retrospectively.

So all of the kids who started IGCSE courses in September 2012 because it was deemed a more rigorous exam by Mr Gove at the time
have now had that two years' work counted for naught
because Nicky Morgan moved the goalposts.

Remember that the children who are being reported in the latest tables will all have marks on their sheets for exams that were compulsory the week they took them speaking and listening in English but deemed worthless three weeks later.

Sadly the amount of retrospective messing about every single year by Gove and now Morgan has made the tables worse than useless.

DCs school shows a 12% drop in GCSE passes.
In fact there was a 2% rise - but lots of the kids did the IGCSE.
Nuff said.

SignoraLiviaBurlando · 30/01/2015 15:04

So as to compare like with like, surely it would be possible just to adjust the previous years' results to comply with this year's guidelines? then a trend might be meaningful.
But the added-value (whoch is published) is in nay case more meaningdul etc. Not how they get GCSEs out of DC that could pass them anywhere.

TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 15:09

signora
But if you knock out the igcses for the last three years you lose the English and Maths results for millions of pupils who took the exams in good faith because they were approved at the time.

Or the btecs that were a valid alternative to GCSEs for the non academic

and should you bar the IGCSEs they do still like as they will be gone in two years time?

SignoraLiviaBurlando · 30/01/2015 15:10

Also, for all those schools that are bleating 'it's not fair' Hmm about multiple re-takes 'not counting' they do still count - but for the DC - not the school...
So very clear - the DC can count the grade they achieve in re-takes.
If the school is only thinking about the school's result - they have ditched re-takes.
If the school is thinking about DC achieve their best results - they continue as before.
Interesting to see which schools have just been gaming the system and have dropped the results as of no value to the school.
Some schools have conned parents and DC into thinking they have dropped re-takes because no value to the DC. Disingenuous at best, utterly deceitful and cynical at worst.

TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 15:16

Are many schools bleating about retakes?
I thought that was something they knew was coming so had dealt with in advance.

Its the dropping of the IGCSEs which came completely out of the blue that was the stinker.

Schools were assuming that the league table would be based on "best 8" as that was what the DFE were saying last winter when the exam entries were being finalised.

NB
the reason lots of schools used the IGCSE is because its easier to get struggling kids across the C/D boundary - so the kids benefited too.

SignoraLiviaBurlando · 30/01/2015 15:21

TalkinPeace - sorry x-posted.
As it happens, DS1 is at an independent school and took GCSEs in 2014 (so we are part of these stats Grin) - several of his GCSEs are iGCSEs - because the school chose more rigorous syllabuses to stretch the DC (some where regular GCSEs, some iGCSEs). In fact, one HoD, when challenged by a parent (unhappy at the harder syllabus) at a meeting said that if they did the regular GCSE it would not challenge the DC, and all his staff would leave as it was so boring.
The fact is that some schools are brave enough to choose a syllabus that will be interesting and stretching - some choose the easiest to get 'results' for the school. the focus needs to be on what works for individual DC, hence look beyond headline data and what added value the school provides for DC like your own (who may not be stellar performers...).

SignoraLiviaBurlando · 30/01/2015 15:28

x-posted again!
If the iGCSEs and BTEC led to a qualification the DC could be proud of fab!!
The DC can be proud and get on with the next thing.
It is the DC that matter, not the school.
Hence why I say, as parents, please look beyond the stats at what the school is offering to DC of differing abilities and talents.

noblegiraffe · 30/01/2015 15:32

My school sent off pretty much every D grade kid's English paper for a remark and loads came back as Cs. Our 5 A*-C inc Maths and English looked like it had gone down on the previous year in the summer, but remarks put it up by over 5%.

I do wonder how many schools with apparently lower pass rates could have done better simply by appealing results on apparently appalling English marking.

I think lots of schools switched to IGCSE English once they messed around with the speaking and listening and following the grade boundary debacle on controlled assessment. And now they're screwed for trying to protect the children from government interference.

The main effect of the no-retake rule was lots of kids being pulled out of early entry for exams. My school had a class preparing for maths GCSE in November. A couple of weeks before their exam the rules change and there is panic about whether they are secure Cs and they got taken out of the exam.

SignoraLiviaBurlando · 30/01/2015 15:42

The main effect of the no-retake rule was lots of kids being pulled out of early entry for exams. My school had a class preparing for maths GCSE in November. A couple of weeks before their exam the rules change and there is panic about whether they are secure Cs and they got taken out of the exam.
Precisely my point - why did the school pull them out?
The DC could still have counted the (presumably better) summer result, just not the school.
School clearly gaming the system - for benefit of SLT performance pay'school-in-league-table' NOT the DC taking the exams Sad
parents should be furious , but aren't because the school has bamboozled them into thinking SLT pay school interests same as the DC.

TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 15:49

noble
DDs head of English got the whole cohort done.
Her grade moved by 12 % from a high B to a rock solid A

the school has changed exam boards because of it.

The IGCSE thing was just vindictive as again it was done after the kids had taken the exams

mythbustinggov · 30/01/2015 16:03

A note on the retakes - my school (where I'm a Governor) used early entry very effectively to help students in English and Maths - if they got their grades, well done them and more time for the other subjects (or off to start AS early) - if they didn't they were better prepared for a retake. Sitting a 'real' GCSE was better than doing another mock for most. We argued long and hard about just carrying on with this system - two things counted against us. Firstly dropped November/January entries meant students had to be ready a whole year early so things became less flexible, and second - more important for the school and so ultimately for the students, to carry on with early entry would have dropped our pass rate by an amount that would have bought OFSTED running, ripped up our 'Outstanding' status and so cost us our 'Teaching School' role, meaning good staff would have looked to move to other schools.

The whole thing stinks - under the 'old measure' 76% would have 5ACEM, instead of 69%. 76% still left school with 5ACEM - so what's the point of the 'new measure'? Surely it's the end result for the student that counts? How is early entry 'cheating' on any planet? It's just allowing student to take exams when they are ready, rather than at a fixed point - with a safety net if they weren't as ready as they seemed to be.

smokepole · 30/01/2015 16:22

Apart from being "Vicious" and spiteful , it is a totally nonsensical thing to do. One year they advocated schools taking IGCSE then 2 years later they say they are worthless!

What is their "end" game with all these sudden nonsensical changes, there has got to be a political reason they are being "spiteful" but I don't know what it is.

lljkk · 30/01/2015 16:26

Not worthless. Confused. Admissions officers and employers will still believe in them and make use of them. They are ones who matter.

Just not part of league tables. Who gives a fig about league tables when they have so many rules in how they're calculated? Private schools can do their own marketing.

smokepole · 30/01/2015 16:36

Maybe this time next year "whoever the Government is" they will fall out with certain Examination Boards and have their exam results expunged from the tables! . Nothing would surprise me .....

TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 16:38

lljkk
In the long run, true, but then you get reports like this coming out
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31044929

smokepole
Do not tempt them. Its been done before when the old boards like AEB were forced to merge.

TheWordFactory · 30/01/2015 16:49

smoke the idea of not including IGCSE and retakes in the league tables is to discourage schools from gaming the system.

I think there is also a (misguided) hope that independent schools will drop IGCSEs.

But bringing in this measure retrospectively is unfair to schools and teachers.

And actually, it will give pupils in state schools less choice. Where teachers used IGCSEs to help those on the D/C border, particularly in English, state schools won't do it if they're not counted for league table purposes.

Many independents will carry on regardless. And some might start to avoid the next few years of mess...

SoupDragon · 30/01/2015 17:00

DCs school shows a 12% drop in GCSE passes.

DSs school shows a drop of 100 percentage points :)

It makes the league tables fairly meaningless.

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TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 17:02

Well known independent schools with a reputation that goes beyond mere results will be able to stick two fingers up at the DFE

The others, whose selling point is often along the lines of excellent results for sensitive kids must be spitting feathers because they need to word their prospectus material very carefully.

TalkinPeace · 30/01/2015 17:06

Jeez, its worse than I thought.
The following has just appeared on the website of DCs school

The DFE decided that for an English Language IGCSE result to count in the table, students would also need a result in English Literature IGCSE – even if that result was a U (ungraded).
Over 60 of our cohort sat the IGCSE English Language paper but not the English Literature paper because we felt it was not in their best interests to do so.
The result is that 74% of the year achieved grade C or above in English Language, the students who sat the IGCSE paper were not credited in the league tables (almost a quarter of the year group).

a few words altered for google purposes

TeenAndTween · 30/01/2015 17:19

Ah Talkin I wondered when a clarification would come out from your DC's school, given the results from my DD's school. Grin

(Just shows there's lies, damned lies and statistics really when it comes to league tables!)

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