"Good" state secondary when looking at league tables?

Yes, I did mean 'Are you in an area that creams off the top 10% before you start comparing?', though like Timechild we are in an area where lots go private (annoying the primaries, actually, as their better-off kids often jump ship at age 9 and thus vanish between one set of SATs and the next).

Regarding whether a school can be described as fully comprehensive, the question is whether they exercise any form of selection. For example, a church school might have religious criteria, but still describe itself as comprehensive because children of all ability are catered for. However, the religious entry criteria will tend to attract families who are motivated enough to jump through hoops in order to get their children in ... and therefore families who are more likely to be supportive of the school etc etc.

The trouble is, even the league tables don't provide a truly standardised comparison.

For example, a school can bump up its apparent success by (for example) entering students for less challenging GCSEs, limiting certain students to Foundation courses only (so they can get a C, but no higher than that), making extensive use of GCSE equivalents etc etc etc.

There is more information on the league tables than there used to be, but you still have to be something of a mind-reader.

And that's without allowing for any issues like the socio-economic make-up of the intake.

My dd's comprehensive (our local community one) is rated outstanding and got 100% A*-C and 78% including English and maths.

Not only are the figures good but we like the school :) (although it is not perfect)

Fully comp I think means a comprehensive in an area where there are no grammars to cream off the most academic. Having said that quite a few dc's around here go private.

Should maybe clarify that 'not so near outstanding' means it's outstanding, but too far away, not that it's not-Outstanding (confuses self)

Oh, and I think we're going to send DC off to the 'Good' school -- because we like it.

Well, our local 'outstanding' school usually scores around 67 to 73% A to C with Eng and Maths, and around 98% will get 5 GCSEs down to G grade. That is, out of about 150 kids each year, about 100 will get 5 good GCSEs; about 8 to 12 of those each year will get all A or A*; and 2 or 3 won't get anything on paper.

The not so near Outstanding school usually gets about 80% through 5 A* to C; it's bigger, so its statistics aren't swung as much by each child.

The 'Good' school gets around 66%. Interestingly, it tends to get more A* than either of the others, but also more D to G grades. i suspect it depends on the intake.

Are you talking fully comp?