Forest School Snaresbrook

Is that sufficient explanation for you?

Well it definitely clarifies the situation, although not your personal grudge. Did you not do well? Has your life not turned out happy or successful? Are you seeking a target for feelings of failure?

Many of us went to unremarkable schools with mediocre academic performance but we aren't still thinking about it years later, or seeking to defame the school.

This years exam results looks great. There seems to have been a big improvement from 2019 (and it looks like that was a bad year) so unlike many independent schools did not hugely inflate grades during the pandemic.

Westminster school also has a below average 16-18 2019 progress score, so Forest is in good company. You need to look at a schools results as a whole and over time.

Going by their post on page 1, I'm really and truly sorry that the OP has experienced some kind of historical trauma linked to child protection at Forest School. I hope that the investigation that has been launched in their name brings them some kind of closure.

However, given that investigation has apparently been launched, I would question whether it's the wisest thing, in the meantime, to go online and create a Mumsnet forum thread which is clearly critical of the school - irrespective of the fact that this thread is not specifically connected to child protection. I also hope, for the OP's sake, that their username is not their actual name.

And yet STILL this person does not acknowledge the "obdurate" fact that last Thursday, Forest's A Level results increased from 39% A star and A grades in 2019 to 67% A star and A grades in 2022, and 65% A star to B grades in 2019 to 85% A star to B grades in 2022.

You don't need a DfE progress / value added score, or need to be a mathematician, to know that there has been improvement in exam performance at that school between 2019 - 2022.

Let's see if you ever tell us why you are really interested.

When I described results I meant the school’s -
both my son’s did well enough at each of their schools academically. I wasn’t impressed by stellar results school in other areas though, whereas I was with poor results school.

value added is probably never going to be massive at a school where everyone arrives at a reasonable standard. Middle son’s grammar school with stellar results has crap value added results.

What's the story OP? Stop being disingenuous.

The same is true of many private schools, I thought?

Friends DC attend. They are delighted with the school. Great exam results and kids are very happy.

Weird thread. Parents look at a whole host of factors when deciding a school for their child. DfE league tables are not top of most considerations.

My principal connection with the School nowadays is by means of the DfE league table for A level results.

This in no way explains your behaviour.

OP - you still haven't said what Forest School has to do with you.

OP what happened to the long story you were going to tell about your experience there?

OP, you do seem to have a vendetta as evident from your last thread and this one.

The issues you raised from your time at Forest albeit from a long time ago, seem to have not been resolved directly with the school. Instead you seem to start threads about Forest’s current performance despite seemingly having no current connection to the school.

This is part of the Warden / Head's piece in said newsletter from 2020:

Certainly, in the world of work and in adult lives more generally, many other factors will trump grades in determining success. Character traits such as grit, curiosity, teamwork, oral communication and creativity are non-cognitive abilities that are not tested and reported on in depth by most schools. We must have a certain level of cognitive intelligence and ability to learn. Clearly, good grades signal this ability. They can and should be celebrated. But success
requires so much more. Particularly if success is recognised as something that is grown and developed, not suddenly arrived at; something that has many manifestations. A richer definition of success would show it being grown and developed in an outstanding all-round school that has pupil development as its
starting point, not a finishing point. When grades – or more importantly a school’s integrated curriculum, as we have at Forest - can reflect all the key
contributors to a child’s development and character, then they might hold more weight towards determining success beyond the very consumer centric view of success painted by the media.

He isn't arguing that grades are of "very limited importance" - he's arguing that they're one small part of a holistic education that a school should be offering.

And as someone who's heard many independent school heads speaking at open days, that Warden / Head at Forest is certainly not alone in arguing this. In fact, I've lost count of the number of Heads at independent schools who want to get away from their reputation as exam hot-houses and have said something very similar to the Warden's piece above, along the lines of "If this school was only interested in excellent exam grades, we'd be failing your children".

Still not willing to tell us what your connection to the school is?

Not only that but the OP refers to the Department for Education data on Forest School from 2019 (the last year of public examinations, before they resumed this year). It's true that its progress score for A Levels is "below average" at -0.29, as the OP is at pains to point out, but beyond that headline is the DfE small print which explains those progress / value added. Crucially, this DfE small print states:

"These figures tell you how much progress students who studied A levels at this school or college made between the end of key stage 4 and the end of their A level studies, compared to similar students across England... A score below zero means students made less progress, on average, than students across England who got similar results at the end of key stage 4.

A negative progress score does not mean students made no progress, or the school or college has failed, rather it means students in this school or college made less progress than other students across England with similar results at the end of key stage 4. The majority of schools and colleges have progress scores between -2 and +2. These scores are also known as 'value added' scores."

You can also see from that DfE data that the average A Level grade at Forest School in 2019 was a B: a B at A Level is hardly "truly dreadful". It's not excellent, but as stated upthread, Forest has never been one of your top flight independent schools where the average is more likely to be A* or A.

The OP also made this point upthread: "Hopefully, the School will have very significantly improved their dreadful academic score and of course I'll be the first to applaud. If they haven't, I hope my detractors will be similarly magnanimous".

Well, one doesn't have to wait for DfE data because as I've indicated above, the school has already published its A Level pass rates last Thursday on their website, which indicates an increase from 39% A (star) and A grades in 2019 to 67% A (star) and A grades in 2022 - an increase of 28%. For A (star) to B grades, they've increased from 65% in 2019 to 85% in 2022 - an increase of 20%. And these 2022 figures are either higher than or level with the internally awarded A Level grades for 2020 and 2021.

Whether or not the increase in 2022's pass rates merit the DfE's calculations lifting Forest from "below average" in its progress / value added score in 2019 remains to be seen, but I would say on the basis of this data published on Thursday alone that Forest has "significantly improved" on its results. Unless the OP is doubting the veracity of the school's data published on its website, of course.

And to repeat a point I made upthread: I don't have any particular interest or attachment to Forest School. In fact, I barely knew of it until I started reading some of the OP's posts on this forum. What I do have an interest in is when people post information very selectively in order peddle a particular agenda about a particular school.

*its results - bloody autocorrect

But why do you care? I couldn’t care less what Forest School’s results were.

My youngest went to a school with dreadful results (don’t know what they are like now), but the school was really good for him & I have never regretted sending him there.

My middle son went to a school with brilliant results and it was very much the wrong school for him

a school is more than it’s results!