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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

finding gcse results for independent schools?

20 replies

itwillbebetter · 29/05/2015 16:12

Could anyone point me in the right direction to find out previous gcse results for the independent sector? I would like to know individual subject results if possible.
Many thanks!

OP posts:

LIZS · 29/05/2015 16:17

Check websites for those you are interested in.

Unexpected · 29/05/2015 16:18

Any independent school worth its salt seems to list exam results in exhaustive detail on their website.

Leeds2 · 29/05/2015 16:29

Most have tables on their website, showing how many students took each individual subjects, then how many got A, A, B etc. Also the % who achieved A or A.

Original poster

itwillbebetter · 29/05/2015 17:19

Ah, maybe I should add that my children are already at this school and they do not publish on their website! It is a non selective school which we initially chose because of its lack of 'melting pot' exam stress philosophy but there are now some alarm bells ringing and I want to be sure of all the facts before I make some decisions! I will of course be asking the school next week but would like to be fully armed with info!

OP posts:

Leeds2 · 29/05/2015 17:40

There may be some information if you go back to the end of August last year in the school's News section, and see what they have to say about A, AS and GCSE results.

WillowFae · 29/05/2015 18:06

Lots of independent schools do have their results on the regular league tables.

meditrina · 29/05/2015 18:15

The Dept Of Education publishes data for all schools but it might not be the level of detail you're after.

MandySweetLikeCandy · 29/05/2015 18:19

If that does't help just ask them - trust me they want your money so they'll tell you there results.

Note that some don't do regular GCSE's but a different Examination Board

Millymollymama · 29/05/2015 21:16

No selection, usually means that the people who have clever children go elsewhere to the schools that do select and put a bit of pressure on!

The school will have the exam data but there will be spin on it! It is only useful if you know what standard of children they recruited. If they don't have many bright children, they won't have stellar results! For all you know, the children might make amazing progress from their starting points. Perhaps this is what you need to know.

Lonecatwithkitten · 30/05/2015 00:07

A really good independent school will be able to produce it's value added score. You would hope that a non-selective independent would help to children to achieve beyond their potential at year 7 giving it a positive value added score.

happygardening · 30/05/2015 09:55

The dept for education does not publish data for all independent schools I just looked at DS2's and most categories say NP (unpublished).
OP if your school is completely non selective then you are unlikely to get amazing results is it not better to look at how you think your individual children are doing, do you and they think they're achieving, whether they're happy and getting lots out of education rather than comparing them with others?

EBee57 · 30/05/2015 19:00

ISC - the independent schools council - has information on all independent schools GCSE & A level results but only in terms of percentage of grades gained, not the individual subjects. Have a look at www.isc.co.uk/research/Publications/exam-results there's a selection of downloads on the right hand which will show you an alphabetical list of schools with either co-ed, girls or boys schools, GCSE, A level, IB or Pre U & BTECs. There's a lot of info but it might be useful as you can scroll down to your school.

balletgirlmum · 30/05/2015 19:02

Also a lot of independent schools show up as 0% A*-C if theY take IGCSEs as they arnt counted on league tables.

Have you tried googling name of school celebrate Gcse 2014?

Bearleigh · 31/05/2015 08:53

I agree you need to consider 'value added' especially for a non-selective school. A non-selective school near us had a reputation as not being very good, and nearly closed because its results were apparently not that good. In fact it was a fantastic school when you looked at its value added score: what it was bad at was marketing itself for that achievement.

Any school can get good results if it has selected bright kids, especially the sort that stop kids sitting exams if they aren't going to get a good mark(!)

Godblessyou123 · 31/05/2015 16:17

Hi I'm new here and I would like to know why some schools take GCSE and some schools take IGCSE. What is the different? I thought all UK schools take GCSE. I will be very appreciated if anyone can tell me more about both exams. Thank You!

LIZS · 31/05/2015 16:38

Originally GCSEs were felt to be a watered down qualification, graded more on coursework and controlled assessments than terminal exams, and tiered levels. Over time this has changed but in the meantime iGcses were adopted by some schools as the more traditional exam based format , perhaps more "rigorous", although even these retain coursework and assessment options.

balletgirlmum · 31/05/2015 16:48

The I stands for International & they were used by private schools abroad who followed the British curriculum.

However many independent schools in this country thought that they prepared students better for A levels (ds's school doesn't care as much for it's gcse results, it's more concerned about its place in the A Level league tables) so they started using them in subjects such as maths, english & science.

Original poster

itwillbebetter · 01/06/2015 11:40

Thanks for all the replies. I have two very happy boys at this school and it is doing exactly what we want for them, making them happy and loving their school life. The alarm bells are ringing though because it seems that in a couple of subjects the syllabus doesn't seem to have been fully covered. Ds1 has just done end of year 10 exams and walked out of a couple (along with his whole class) saying they haven't been taught much of it! These are subjects in which he has been predicted A's in. I'm not interested in comparing results between other schools or children, I just want to know if these subjects have had consistently low results as DS1 is counting on them for his future plans!
Many thanks

OP posts:

summerends · 01/06/2015 21:40

Itwillbebetter if you are sure that the exam results are not camouflaged somewhere on the website or in the previous year's school magazines (and you don't want to ask directly) then it might be worth checking whether the school is reviewed in the Good School Guide as then the previous results will be there with some analysis. It will cost you a little though (not sure how much) and not all schools are reviewed.

canny1234 · 01/06/2015 22:16

Have the school tested them on past GCSE papers?In which case it would be expected that a lot of the syllabus would not have been covered yet.
Start questioning the school.Any school worth its mettle will not mind giving answers.Demand an appointment with this particular teacher.I've done this in state schools let alone private ones where you are meant to be paying for a good education.If you aren't keen on talking to the school then you really don't want to know the answers.

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