Independent School GCSE results

[SlightlyTerrified]

I know this is in Primary Education but I am posting as my DCs are both still in Primary (Y1 and Y3) and attend a school that is 3-16yrs.

Basically, the school got 90% A-Cs this year however only 50% A-C including Maths and English. This is worse than several state schools in the area (the overall results excluding maths and English are better though).

TBH I was actually not that concerned, they are non-selective and only have 40 children per year at secondary so not comparable to a big school (e.g a few children not getting Cs = high percentage), they also cater for children with mild SEN and are specialists for dyslexia also. All children 'get in' to seniors regardless of ability. However, a few years ago they were getting over 90% including Maths and English so a HUGE drop.

There were some major staffing problems last year which are now sorted and I think it is all looking positive but loads of parents are starting to look elsewhere (even for the Y3s) as they are so worried about the results.

I love the school and both my DCs seem to be doing well but really what I am asking is should I be concerned? Would you be considering alternatives at this age or would you wait for a year or two to see if there is an improvement. Can a school pull it back that much or could it just be a lower achieving cohort?

Sorry - a bit long!!!!

Lots of independent schools do eg maths GCSE a year early for top sets, which automatically cuts their figures right down (as then those taking maths won't have 5 A-C, and then next year their 5 A-C won't include maths, if you see what I mean). Could it be something like that?

With a small year group it's not such a crazy change. 36/40 a few yrs ago & now 24/40.

DS spent y6-y7 at a tiny private school with abysmal GCSE results. He said he was very unchallenged academically, that seemingly all of the other kids had low ability and SN/difficult backgrounds, and supply teachers as well as regular staff were telling him to leave if he cared about his GCSE results. That's when you know to leave.

I would ask the senior management team of the school, you are paying for a service that appears to be declining after all. They should be able to explain this. Is this a gradual decline or a sharp drop? Is there now a higher % of children with SEN than previously?
The problem is once pupils start leaving smaller schools with declining academic results it's hard to remedy the situation, however if your DC's are happy there I would ask the questions.

Lljkk - that was my original thought regarding the number of children, the old HT said there were 4 children who they knew would not get Cs in English but they will always be non selective.

They said they have new processes in place but that was to address the drop from high 90%s to 87% but they did not mention the low maths and English (I think mainly English).

I do think following this revelation more questions need answering but it didn't cross my mind to leave just yet.

It has dropped 17% from last year and about 20% before that so a really big drop over the last couple of years.

I have a feeling that where schools are non selective they will get more and more SEN children as any school that is mildly selective will not take them, or only in small, select, numbers. We had a non selective girls' senior school near me. It's results were not as good as the local secondary school. Their results, in comparison the local grammar schools were pretty dire. However they opened their own primary department and now do not even guarantee entry from that. They still do not reach the grammar school levels but are pretty selective! The league tables speak very loudly and schools with truly non selective intakes have to work very hard to keep to that ethos when the bright children stay away.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) our local school only got about 30% this year so we would not be in a better position at the state school.

I hope people don't just jump ship in panic as I really think it is/was a fab school and I think they will work extra hard from now on. It would be a shame to change the ethos especially as they were getting 90% result being non-selective before.

Sorry, I realised I didn't answer the question regarding the SEN numbers. I really don't know, all I know is that it was mentioned that several children would not reach a C grade in English.

I would say small size does indicate people would like this school for SEN pupils. It is something important because this will keep some bright children away who want, and need, to work with other bright children. Also won't parents look for another independent school? Why would they look for a state school? They would look for better, not worse. Very many parents go private for good exam results so poor ones will make people twitch!

I think you need to look at the number of children getting As and As not the A to C numbers. Also personally, I would never go to a school without a 6th form at senior school. This just screams non academic to me I'm afraid. If you pay for senior education, why would you not want a school with a 6th form? 6th forms are the engine room of schools. All major independent senior schools have 6th forms. What do the pupils do when they leave at 16? Where do they go? It might be a nice school, but what are its academic standards when compared with other independent schools? Do many of the children get into selective 6th forms?

A lot of the children go to selective 6th forms from there (there are quite a few locally also)

Academically it is similar to one other independent school (which has a 6th form) but much lower than the other co-ed one. The overall results are similar to the other school but the results including maths and English are lower this year.

The 3rd school which has the high results is highly selective so 98% is the lowest they have ever got.

Thanks, you have made some really good points, I have lots of thinking to do.