just to court controvesy and to amuse me while I write my reports, are us northerners thick [grin]

[twinsetandpearls]

Of course we are not but was v interested to note the the Sunday Times league table of private schools as provided by Xenia (who else ) is dominated by schools in the South East especially at the top.

why hasn't my grin in the title worked???

ignore me them, probably just as well. I thought at least Xenia would have a view.

Old north/south divide innit!

Yes you are. (am I helping?)

but is success of schools, north, south or whatever, a reliable measure of success longer term?

Possibly more private schools in South East? As more people willing/able to pay fees.

Lots of lists like that are dominated by the South East I find.

Thanks

Yes there will be more private schools in the south east but I bet that even if you looked at percentages there would be a higher percentage of southern schools in the top 100 and certainly the top 20 than northern.

But then again I am a thick northerner so what would i know.

pshaw

Only a thick northerner would think that a in the title would work!

Dountless 'proof' that only rich people are clever....

were they based on simple GCSE results of value added, I wonder?

I think simple GCSE and A level results.

The school I teach in is in the top 10% in the country in value added statistics but makes no appearance on these tables.

what is pshaw - Is it a highly intellectual southern term?

Is there still an inequality in the amount of cash allocated per pupil in different counties/regions?

yes, I can understand that. Which must leave the teaching staff gutted. exceptional teaching but no positive recognition.

pshaw is an affectation!

a sort of middle class tut!

Now scuttle back to your report writing!

'Beelzebub is a lively and challenging student who can, when he chooses, produce work of a satisfactory standard. To improve , he needs to stop tormenting the angels, and concentrate on his course work'

I have nearly done a full class, one more pupil to go and then I will do the rest tomorrow.

yeah have finshed my first class - one more to do tomorrow night.

I was quite surprised how easy it was to get dd into her school, we thought there would be a waiting list, I think down south it may have been different.

Um... because there are more private schools in the South-east? SE England is the most densely populated European zone. And a lot of people are well-off. It means nothing more.

A lot of us northerners have migrated like refugees to the South-East. Lured by the slave-traders of the professional world we have sold our souls to get on the property ladder.

Not sure it will ever feel like home though. People just take themselves too seriously.

UQD - No doubt there are more private schools in the South East. However, there should be a proportionate number of Northern schools at or near the top of the table and there aren't.

The Sunday Times review had a list of top 100 private and state schools. I wasn't sure where all the latter were - the only one I was sure was northern was Lancaster Girls Grammar at 100, the rest seemed mostly southern... including at least 4 in Essex. Bang goes another stereotype....

anyhow, its probably mostly a function of population density. The times doesn't publish a list of the bottom 100 but I bet quite a lot of those are also in the southeast and other densely populated areas.

I would suspect that since the market for private schools is bigger in the SE (due to denser population, and more affluence), then the private schools can be very competitive, with the ones attracting the brighter pupils floating to the top. There will still be plenty of schools with similar achievement levels to other private schools nationally, and then an over-representation of weaker schools.