Well, there's this:
"Harris academies have two basic techniques to “improve” educational standards:
1, exclude pupils in the bottom 25 per cent of achievement, or who perhaps have English as a second-language, or have other issues with social deprivation. This is particularly effective, since it eliminates their results from any league table assessments. It does nothing for the education and life chances of a vast swathe of our teenagers, however.
2, Get as many pupils in the school as possible to take empty qualifications, things like BTecs in frisbee throwing, especially those “equivalents”, certificates that count for two, three or even four GCSEs, because this helps bolster the academy’s rating on the league tables. What it does not do is equip those youngsters with the sort of meaningful or useful qualifications that they can present to potential employers."
And this:
"Take Harris South Norwood as another example. In 2011, 75 per cent of pupils attained five or more A-C GCSEs or equivalents, including maths and English – the third best of all Croydon’s state schools.
But if you take the “equivalents”, that is the non-GCSE qualifications, out of the results, then only 46 per cent of pupils achieved the magic goal of five or more GCSEs at A to C grade, seeing the academy plummet to 15th of Croydon’s 22 state schools. Hardly a paragon of achievement after all.
The South Norwood school roll makes for worrying reading, too. At a school where the yearly intake should be around 200, at the end of Key Stage 4 (for 14 to 16-year-olds, those sitting GCSEs), for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010, there were only 105, 91 and 95 pupils. In a borough with a chronic lack of school places, where had all the Harris Academy’s pupils gone?
In 2009-2010, South Norwood had the highest number of permanent exclusions in Croydon."