How do you judge this school's results?

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GCSE Results 2015

90% of all students attained A*-C grades in Maths
91% attained A*-C grades in English
95% of all students attained A*-C in Science
1/3 of all GCSE grades in Maths were an A*/A grade
3 levels of Progress in English: 87% and 4 levels of Progress: 38%
3 levels of Progress in Maths: 85% and 4 levels of Progress: 45%
1/2 of all GCSE grades in Biology were an A*/A grade
1/2 of all GCSE grades in Physics were an A*/A grade
3/4 or all GCSE grades in Chemistry were an A*/A grade
7 students made 5 levels of Progress in Science!
81.3% of students attained 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths (a 9% increase from 2014)
Close to 1/4 of all grades at GCSE was an A* or A.
Our highest performer secured 12 A grades and the second highest performer secured 11A grades.

A Level & BTEC Results 2015

26% of all grades at A level were an A*/A grade (an increase of 10% from 2014 to 2015)
Including BTEC qualifications, 37% of grades awarded were A-A/Distinction-Distinction
In Maths, 3 out of every 4 grades were an A*/A grade
One student secured 100% in all of his A level modules!
50% of all A Level grades awarded were A-B (54% A-B including BTEC's)
82% of all A level grades were A-C (84% A-C including BTEC's)
99% of all A level grades were A*-E
A Level ALPs 'Outstanding/Excellent': Maths, History, Geography, Economics, Business Studies, Music, Art, Media.
A Level ALPs 'Very Good': Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology
A Level ALPs 'Good': Classics, Physical Education
93% of students have secured a place at University

Sorry I meant "Being Catholic...."he

Being catholic does not make you intelligent. But if you are a school, being Catholic makes you selective.

Ok I see the point. But I wouldn't talk of catholic schools being selective as synonymous of good results.

It's been said before but if a school is selective in any way and is oversubscribed then it doesn't tend to get the most disadvantaged educationally - the transient, those from families who don't value education, those with mental health or other issues etc etc. You only have to look at stats for the numbers of low attainers in various oversubscribed Catholic schools to know this is the case (eg Oratory/Sacred Heart which I think have so few as to almost negligible).

Looking at my kids' primary, the very challenging kids would never get into any school that selects on anything other than distance. Their parents, sadly, don't get out of bed in the morning, let alone get them to church to sign some sort of register on a Sunday.

I used to teach in a very oversubscribed Catholic school. It was certainly selective. It set an entrance test ostensibly so that it could be sure to take pupils fairly from each level of ability, but clearly the level of information the tests and the thorough interviews of the families gave them enabled them to select in subtle ways and endure they got higher-achieving pupils.

Get it now

5 levels of progress in Science means either a very low start point (e.g. a level 3 going into year 7) or off the chart end point. Or maybe their way of measuring is non-standard.

Statistics tell you it is possible for your vchild to get all A*if that is what they are capable of and that it has a sixth form which they could get good grades. Everything else you need to know will vome from looking round _ open evening and during the school day if possible

Bertrand.... there is not any exam to get in the school hence i am sure the lower ability is allowed to apply too

You don't have to have an exam to be "selective"

If you have any sort of hoop to jump through to get a place- church attendance being a pretty big hoop- you are going to get a preponderance of aware, switched on parents who know how the system works and who can make it work for them. So more children with the middle/high attainer "badge".

The school concerned has very few lower ability children.

Can someone please explain to me, how it is that only middle class switched on people are to be found in church in the UK? I am originally from Africa, where people from across all classes go to church. If a school is set up by the church, it will capture everybody unless if it was set up to be fee paying.

How come the same doesn't apply here? I never u deer stand it when people say church schools are unfair because only the middle classes go there?

It's not the going to church, it's the keeping accurate records, knowing which church to go to, being organised enough to go the required number of times, the forming relationships with the vicar/priest...........

Iamthegreatest, you may well have poorer families attending church (though as Bertrand says, less likely to do all the box ticking or early baptism) and they may also get into these schools. However, they'll not be the sort of poor families that cause real difficulties for schools - the ones with very uncooperative parents or terrible mental health/drug etc issues. They'll not be the ones that are being constantly moved or rehoused (even if they did attend church, they'd find they hadn't been able to attend the same church regularly enough).

Going to church in itself means that, regardless of income, you're not disorganised or chaotic. I think this is the key distinction ('respectable'/organised/ordered v chaotic) rather than middle-class v poorer.

What is wrong with people making use of the best thats available !

If that means doing whats required to get they child in to a faith school good on them.

There is nothing stopping non 'middle' class parents being 'orgainsed' or determined of whats required or prepared to get their child in to a selective or faith school.

The major thing stopping parents not getting their children in to a good school whether academy/faith or selective if appropriate is a not 'arsed' attitude.

The excuse that because these families are economically disadvantaged , they are unable to access the good or the appropriate schools is nonsense. This is of course shown up by the fact that parents that come from Eastern Europe or Asia make sure their children go to the best schools.

The idea of 'drawing' lots for school placement as proposed by Betrand and operated by loony council Brighton is just an excuse for social tampering .
The real reason though is to hide the fact that schools generally highlight how good/bad the local area is.

A high number of families are not prepared to act or seek a better school because it takes effort.

Therefore they deserve the schools they get.

"The idea of 'drawing' lots for school placement as proposed by Betrand and operated by loony council Brighton is just an excuse for social tampering"

It's not an excuse for "social tampering". It is social tampering. It's a way of doing what grammar school supporters say that grammar schools do- and which they don't.

And of course the big flaw in the "they get the schools they deserve" line is that it's the children who get the stuck in the cycle of deprivation and nothing improves for anyone.

Sandyholme: No, the children do not deserve poor schools just because their parents are feckless/not arsed/clueless and/or poor. This is in my view the main weakness of the UK education "system" (mishmash) and a key obstacle to social mobility across generations. The huge differences between schools (and parents), and the (increasing, significant) complexity of the system make this unfair. The sins of the parents should not be punishing children.

Am i right in thinking, that perhaps the difference from where i'm from is that people go to church there because they have faith whereas here, most go to church just for the schools, hence the need for all the record keeping etc.In my home country people just go to church every Sunday, because thats what they're meant to do, even the poorest of the poor go every Sunday. But still not understanding why poor people in the UK cannot be organised enough to go to church every Sunday i.e if they want to go to the church school.

Obviously if someone suffers from MH etc then thats a different matter all together but i'm assuming most non goers are not suffering MH.

The irony of this all though is, when ds1 was applying to primary here, he was not accepted at the church school because we weren't the right type of Christian, even thought we'd been attending church all our lives

".In my home country people just go to church every Sunday, because thats what they're meant to do, even the poorest of the poor go every Sunday. But still not understanding why poor people in the UK cannot be organised enough to go to church every Sunday i.e if they want to go to the church school."

There can be any number of reasons why:

• Transport: If the 'correct' Catholic church is miles away and you have no car, how do you get there on a Sunday? Sunday bus services are patchy at best, and that's if they even run in your area.

• Work: If you need to avoid childcare costs and have to work weekends instead, how can you go to church regularly on Sundays? Others might not even want to work at weekends but have no choice because that's the only work available. Sunday hasn't been a "day of rest" in this country for a very long time.

• Family commitments: The child's parent may be a carer for their own relatives and not able to take time out from those responsibilities. It may be the only time they can visit family.

• Not realising that church attendance is necessary: Many people don't realise the hoops that you now have to jump through to get into some schools. As you found out yourself, it's not enough to be a churchgoer. You have to have known which church to go to, how to get attendance registered formally etc.

• Being worried that they won't 'fit in'. Will other people notice that they aren't wearing nice clothes? Will other people notice if they can't afford to put money into the collection basket? If their child has SN, will their child's behaviour be accepted? (Families of children with SN are much more likely to be living in poverty).

And that's without considering the more immediate effects of poverty.

And the requirement to attend church every Sunday also effectively keeps out the children of feckless, uncaring parents who can't be arsed. Who are as a group, less likely to achieve well.

Hmmm..i'm beginning to see why, most of the questions asked seem to be as a result of just a completely different mind set and communities.
In my home country, most people can walk to church.
Very few people work weekends and almost non work on Sundays.
All family members go to church including all the frail elderly.
Worries about not fitting in are minimal because the vast array of churches means you will find one that you fit in.
Sadly children with SN are simply hidden.

So in light of all that you can see how a school like the one in the OP, which requires proven church attendance every week for three years in order to get into the 'top priority' category, is effectively selection by the back door.

I think if Church attendance on a Sunday was still just something you do then it would be less selective. As it is Church attendance is often just a hoop you have to jump through to get into a school the more you advantage those children who have parents that are invested in their education, and those children tend to do better anyway. Which is why Church schools tend to have a less economically disadvantaged and higher attaining intake than other schools. And higher attaining KS2 pupils tend to make more progress across KS3 and 4 than lower attaining ones.

Incidentally, I don't think the school's data on the website and their league table data match up. Which is not unusual, but you might want to look at the data the DfE has.

As an possibly irrelevant aside the most active and well attended churches I know don't give access to any school.

sandyholme What is wrong with people making use of the best thats available

Nothing if you have no moral conscience, I suppose.

Personally, I'm not the type of person to lie just to get my kids into the best school. Bear in mind faith schools prioritise those of the faith, not those who have chosen to be of the faith for the qualifying period required for a school place. (my DCs don't go to faith school btw)

sandyholme - The major thing stopping parents not getting their children in to a good school whether academy/faith or selective if appropriate is a not 'arsed' attitude.

Is this just your opinion or is there anything to support this as a fact?

The parents I come across who get caught out by the system and stepped all over by the pointy elbowed, middle class, mine, mine, mine parents are merely ignorant rather than lazy.