Wimbledon High School - sums do not sum up

[MsAverage]

Can anyone help me to understand the exam results published on WHS website?

If I sum up the first column "Number entered", I get 198. Knowing that they have ~80 children in the Upper Sixth, I get ~2.5 A-levels per child. Which looks weird - a half of the children are leaving highly academical school with only 2 A-levels.

For control I take, say, City of London School for Girls. 229 entries from 67 candidates (they have ~70 children in upper Sixth - sounds credible) gives 3.4 A2s per child, which sounds more realistic.

What am I missing with WHS?

Perhaps some are awaiting re-marks or some girls are going on to do art college so are only taking art
or some already completed A2 in some subjects during 2011?
PE isn't listed, I know similar schools like Guildford High offer PE a level which suggests WHS would.
it does say ' Please note that results are subject to change and will be updated at regular intervals.'
weird though! maybe email the school.
Are you looking at the school or just curious?

If some girls did A2 last year, that means that some of Y12 are doing A2 this year and should be included in the current results. My DD actually did one A2 in Y10 (first language as MFL), but it is unlikely that they have a huge number of such children.

Art is a great point - I did not know that art students do only one subject. That makes it clear for me why Art is notoriously time-consuming subject - they have plenty of time. However, heavily art-centred and quite small Queen's College London has 137 exam entries.

PE is not included into City of London's and Queen's College's numbers either.

Yes, we are looking for a school. I do not know how things work here, and just trying to make sense out of things I see. Maybe, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation which I just have not thought of.

Are you sure of the number of pupils?

Yes, scaevola has a point. With the economic situation in recent years, more and more end up in colleges for a level from private schools. Also with girls schools many leave for co-ed. Kings wimbledon have just started taking girls for sixth form as well, lots of the brightest wimbledon high girls probably go there.
I reckon sixth form will be far smaller than 80.

I just returned from the opening evening. Maybe, they we talking about school's total potential capacity?

Inspection report-2010 gives number of 141 Six-formers. 198/(141/2)= 2.8. Still too low.

KCS started taking girls in September 2010, and IIRC took more than they expected to because they had so many good applicants and they could find the space. That could mean a one-off very small year group at WHS if they were caught on the hop.

It says elsewhere in the prospectus that girls take 3-4 A levels. The only way this adds up is if there are fewer girls.

Londoner, thank for the insight about Kings. I got impression that WHS is heading this year to a lower subscription rate than this very attractive school deserves.

Scaevola, I asked head of Physics about their AS and A2 numbers. 33 and 20 was the answer. On the last year report I see 7 (!) A2 exam entries. There are 3 Physics-only teachers on the staff list and were on the opening evening. Three teachers on 7 exam entries? One in 5 ASers actually sit an A2 exam? Hmmm... This kind of matches 2.5-2.8 A2/pupil.

Have you looked at the DfE website? If I put WHS first and CoL second, it says (for 2011 but they are fairly consistent over the last four years)

number of students 73 / 80
points* per pupils 1002.7 / 1038.9
points per exam 263.5 / 272.1
number getting 2 or more A Level 100% / 100%
number getting 3 or more A Level 99% / 100%

points: A=300, A=270, B=240 etc

So unless something drastic has happened (entirely possible this year) it seems that the two schools are comparable.

WHS and CoL

The school's website says 198 exams in named subjects amongst 73 pupils, making 2.7 exams per child (2012).
The DfE website says 1002.7 points per child, 263.5 points per exam which makes 3.8 exams per child (2011). Are they all taking General Studies to bump up the figures?

I looked at WHS's results in detail last year, going through the leavers destinations I was actually shocked at how many were going on to Art Foundation/Designer courses, so this may be affecting the results as someone suggested. I looked briefly at this years results and again thought I saw an arty bias.
I am very interested in WHS for DD as DS is off to KCS and I thought it would work well for holidays etc. I am going to the open day on the 6th, does anyone know if they have a very strong languages department?

Senua, thanks for the link, the mystery solved!

For the year 2011 they had:
Number of students aged 16-18 - 139
Number of students at end of A/AS or equivalent study - 73

Therefore, for the next year (2012) they had 66 only. 198/66 = 3. An odd drop-out, a couple of art-only girls, and we are getting more sensible figures.

ALD - if you're thinking of a DS at KCS and a DD at WHS, do be aware that KCS have longer holidays so you will have one off whilst the other is still at school. That said, KCS boys work really hard and need their long holidays!

Thanx Tinkerbayley, you are the 2nd person to tell me that the holidays aren't aligned, I just stupidly assumed they would be as they are both in Merton and siblings are likely to attend both schools.
This was my main attraction, DD is currently at Surbiton Juniors, and is very happy there,but I have had a nightmare as her holidays have been so different to DS's prep. I am beginning to think I should have gone co-ed.

There are a lot of siblings at the two schools and parents cope by sending the boys to sports camps for the weeks where the holidays don't overlap! I don't think any of the girls schools in SW London have as long hols at KCS, except maybe SPGS? If you want Co-ed maybe Kingston Grammar is your best option? KCS is marvellous though.

Strong supporter of KCS but less so of Wimbledon High School. Sent our daughter to Notre Dame in Cobham even though we live in Wimbledon (school bus from Wimbledon so journey fine). Watch the school's attitude towards bullying-very different at ND. WHS have the usual anti-bullying policies-but ask how many pupils have actually been punished for bullying (and don't believe it if you are told none because it doesn't happen!). Depends on your daughter and how resilient she is.

Actually as you don't have a daughter at WHS I don't feel you are in a position to make these judgements. I have a daughter at WHS and as I was also curious as to this I have made enquiries with parents all the way through the school and there has not been a single rumour of bad behaviour. My daughters year is very well educated and ready for society (she is in 6th form) and I also have a son at KCS. His school is very proud of their 'status' and this makes the boys there very arrogant and conceited. Have heard many cases of them degrading wimbledon college boys and WHS girls on the streets for their 'less academic schools' and the school isolates them from society. In fact if you look at KCS's results they are very comparable to that of WHS. I think your post was based on some thoughts of yours and no actual experience.