Comparing academic results in 2 schools

[Cortina]

Trying to understand differences and which is the better one academically, please fire away if you can help thanks!

School A

School A is independent and non selective.

At 7 years old children's results were teacher assessed. The school says the national average result is 2B (?)

Their results:

Reading 54% level 3
Writing 23% level 3
Maths 31% level 3

Previous year:

Reading 55% level 3
Writing 37% level 3
Maths 51% level 3

Aged 11, 190 students were tested:

56% achieved level 5
Maths 73% achieved level 5
Science 92% achieved level 5

Are these results excellent, good, average or poor in your opinion?

School B

School B is independent and selective (I think)

Year 6 pupils aged 10/11 took externally marked National Curriculum Key Stage 2 tests in English, Maths and Science in May 2009.

English
100% achieved level 4 and above
73% achieved level 5 and above

KS2 Maths
100% achieved level 4 and above
76% achieved level 5 and above

KS2 Science
88% achieved level 4 and above
87% achieved level 5 and above

Thoughts on results? Thanks.

Looking to possible move to one of these if finances and vacancies at either school permit. We liked A (for reasons other than academic results).

Tbh I think that the only "result" which matters with an independent primary/prep is their track record of getting children into their first choice of senior school. The Destination list is more important than the SAT results, with the details of scholarships of interest - they should be split down into academic, allrounders, sport, music etc.

KS1 attainment should be 2b.

School A's KS2 Maths and Science results are very similar - i.e. pretty good, but English not as good (but perfectly OK IMO).

If school B is selective then it's results damn well ought to be good, so results not that impressive. If school A is non-selective the results are quite impressive.

If you prefer A for other reasons then go for it - it certainly doesn't appear to fail children academically.

(KS2 attainment is expected to be 4b, so 5 indicates above average academic achievement).

Thanks, that was very helpful .

Destination list doesn't tell you if they got into first choice only where they went?

How does it work with scholarships? The more they have the more impressive the prep academically?

Good to know both good academically if we went that way.

Just found these scholarship results for the selective school:

7 Academic scholarships
2 Music scholarships
1 Maths scholarship

They all look to have gone on to great schools too.

Mind you I expect you see lots of scholarships from preps?

I think school A is poor really. Not as good as rural state primaries around here. Not too bad if DC is bright but it would need to have something else going for it to make me send DC there.

School B is better. But if it selects pupils and parents it should be. I would ask why it failed to get 100% level 4 at science at KS2.

School A poor?!!!! The vast majority of kids achieve well in excess of their expected level in year 6? Blimey how high are your standards!

These results probably just reflect the intake of the children.

Your child will probably achieve the same in either school.

My dd is at a school that get some appalling sats results, but all the clever children there do really well.

I agree with Builde I would go by the feel of the school. It is the intake that mainly determines the SATS result.

I would expect a destination list to show all the schools that each child had been offered, and in addition which school was chosen.

For our local non-selective prep the scholarship rates are about 1 in 3 for the most selective local independent and 1 in 2 for the next selective, though the awards vary from 10-50%. So it depends on how large the year group is.

how many kids per year to produce those scholarships - some may get offered more than one scholarship or even more than one school place with one. Ours don't do sats so can't compare.

Just looked at another prep school near us, a serious academic reputation but a bit too much of a sausage factory from initial impression they've got 22 scholarships so far this year.

Just to add it's apparently non selective.

Are they all academic scholarships? IME of non-selective preps schools they are very good at nurturing whatever talent the child has got which will attract an award. And many independent schools will offer scholarships to those talented in music, DT, Art, sport etc.

Take a close look at the children, and the other parents - do you feel that you and your child will fit or not?

Thanks .

Re: the school with 22 scholarships (2009) -they were, some that were 'two in one' it seems:

Music x 5
Sports x2
Art x 2
Maths x 1
Academic x 13