Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Top Comprehensives Measured by Ebacc Percentage

40 replies

zanzibarmum · 26/04/2011 20:20

Is there a table showing top comprehensives in English measured by the proportion of students achieving the Ebacc?

OP posts:
wotnochocs · 27/04/2011 12:48

it doesn't mean anything retrospectively.

Kez100 · 27/04/2011 12:43

Ebacc measure isn't catching anyone out. It is such a restrictive calculation, as others say, that schools can look good or bad for no really good reason.

Most capable children take triple science. Thats one useless option block for ebacc measure because you only need two sciences.

Many children take an art or music. Thats another useless option block for ebacc measure.

So, children now have two options left and have to take history or geography in one and a language in another. If they don't they won't have any chance of nailing an ebacc.

And all this when no one even knew it would be taken into account!

LondonMother · 27/04/2011 12:35

Zanzibarmum, that league table doesn't take into account that independent schools that enter pupils for iGCSE Maths and English get a score of 0 on the 5+ GCSE A*-C measure. My son's school falls into that category and I think they would otherwise have beaten every comprehensive in their borough hands down. They wouldn't have got 100% on the ebacc as at GCSE one out of History, Geography and RE was compulsory - so a pupil who chose RE and didn't take H or G as another option wouldn't count towards the ebacc score. The science and MFL would have been no problem, though.

meditrina · 27/04/2011 12:35

There are confounders in the tables - some high performing schools do not feature because they use the IGCSE which isn't counted, and have more pupils sitting three singles sciences (which crowds out the required humanity). When this cohort of pupils was making its GCSE choices, the EBAC didn't exist - now it does, there will be a knock on effect on what subjects are offered/recommended. This year's cohort will also have made their choices and started the courses pre-EBAC. For good comparisons, the first results will be those of 2012.

In the meantime, the magic 5 (A*-C including English and Maths) is probably the one to watch.

Lancelottie · 27/04/2011 12:24

Surely it doesn't show that schools 'game-play', but that not all children want to take History or Geography? I certainly didn't!

Original poster
zanzibarmum · 27/04/2011 10:41

Actually, here are just the London top 100. Focusing on just the ebacc column/scores it is clear that many comprehensives beat some of London's grammars and private schools hands-down on ebacc performance

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/8254332/GCSE-league-tables-2010-school-by-school.html

OP posts:
Original poster
zanzibarmum · 27/04/2011 10:34

Thank you circular - while the top 100 (all schools) exclude some high perfroming comprehensives which have better Ebacc scores than the selective/grammar and private schools it is nonetheless interesting.

It seems there is as much variation amongst the grammar and private schools in Ebacc than there is in just A*-C measure - same for the comprehensives - suggesting all schools game play on the league tables and all were caught by the new Ebacc measure.

If there was a top 100 for England on Ebacc I think some comprehensives might do considerably better than some private/grammar schools.

OP posts:
senua · 27/04/2011 08:52

haha, circular. You are not the only one reading incorrectly.
Sorry: hadn't twigged that you had already linked to that list! Blush

Smile
senua · 27/04/2011 08:50

Aha!
If you are really that interested, you can create your own league table. If you go here you get full details of all schools GCSE results (go to the page called KS4 results, double-click on the column-header and it will sort them). You would have to go through, region by region, but the 'advanced options' facility (bottom left, below the search boxes) allows you to search on comps-only.

Hmm, I've explained this back to front. It's 'advanced options' first, go to regions and then KS4/double click.

circular · 27/04/2011 08:42

whoops, readt thar wrong.
Senua you are right it goes bt 5A*-C incl. Eng and Maths. The Ebacc is just a tiebreaker. Not obvious when looking at the top 100 overall.

senua · 27/04/2011 08:37

I can't find your league table (so far!) zanzi.
In fact, all I can find are negative results. For example, this table shows the best 100 schools but (a) it is all schools, not only comps and (b) it ranks them on GCSE percentage passes. Thus the lowest school on the list, with an ebacc of 44%, gets listed whereas our school, with a higher ebacc but lower 5A*-C, does not.

circular · 27/04/2011 08:35

This shows top 100 schools by Ebacc for 2010 results. All schools, not just comps. though

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/8254332/GCSE-league-tables-2010-school-by-school.html

Original poster
zanzibarmum · 26/04/2011 23:54

Kez100 - that's right but if you look at it as a measure rather than a target the league table can tell interesting results; after all teachers have been saying how much they are against targets. Indeed, now that Ebacc is a target is will become progressively less meaninful as schools cram students to hit a particular percentage.

Talkingpeace2 - thanks but my question was about list of top comprehensive for England and Wales not by LEA. Anyone know if such a list exists?

OP posts:
Kez100 · 26/04/2011 23:01

Remember these are retrospective. For example, our school had a really good take up, by coincidence, of the ebacc subjects in 2008 and we managed top in county last year. However, in 2009, there was a fall off in MFL uptake and so this year - even if our 5 A to C (Inc E and M) is better than normal (which we think it will be) we will be stuffed with an ebacc % of possibly half of last year. None of the children in either year knew the ebacc would exist when they took their options. Nor did next years children, the children of 2012.

TalkinPeace2 · 26/04/2011 21:38

By LEA on the BBC website....
But take the raw data with a rather large handful of salt

Swipe left for the next trending thread