Reading too much into it?

[Alltootrue2u]

DD’s school has a history of bragging. Every year on the results days they update the news section in the website with details of how many got into Oxbridge - % A at A level etc..

GCSE results day they always have info on how many got A* or last year 7-9 in maths and English and what % got both at a 4 and then what % got both at a 5.

This year there is nothing! Not even when the school is open to collect results. The cynic in me can’t help but feel that year they don’t have much to brag about. There are grumbling of unhappiness amongst parents generally.

DD going into year 10. A few of us are worried about lack of communication and support generally. Not sure if this is clouding my feelings about lack of info about results this year? It’s certainly not helping!!

Have you checked the local press? Twitter?

Generally when a school goes quiet on results day it’s not a good sign.

They don’t have a Facebook page or use Twitter. Their communication is generally only ever need to know, except the bragging on results day.

I agree it’s not a great sign!

It might be that the person who usually updates the website is off sick, or similar.

I would love to think that but this is supposedly an Ofsted outstanding school and it’s been over a week since A Levels were released and everybody has been waiting with baited breath for the new style GCSE results day. We think they are delaying having to tell us that this year has not gone well.

Have you checked the press? Local papers normally do live results day coverage.

Slight off the original question, but I have had a look at some of the schools around where I live. They are all busily selectively quoting statistics. One quoting 7+ grades, one quoting '5 standard passes' one quoting maths and English separately, one quoting the 5 good passes. It is impossible to compare!

A bit like the 732 getting 7 grade 9s. I haven't read the report, but given that often schools and the government like to look a 8 grades, the cynic in me presumes there is a big drop off between the number getting 7 grade 9s and those getting 8 grade 9s.

Schools tend to pick the statistics which show them in the best light, rather than reeling off everything in their statements. Maybe they can’t decide which bit to publish?!

Noble - absolute radio silence! It’s really not like them at all!

Exam results statistics can be twisted and represented in many ways to make a school's performance look good - even if it's not far from it!

I doubt that is the reason they've not published anything.

even if it's not far from it!

Even if it's far from it - that should say

one quoting the 5 good passes

Hah, I saw a school using good passes meaning 9-4, while giving the impression that they mean 9-5. The official terms are standard and strong passes, anything else is probably a fudge!

The best manipulation I saw yesterday was a school that listed their top performers - a weird concept in itself - and said that they got three 9s, eight 7/8s between them. Still great performance but misleading.

Then there was another school who said that 80% of kids got an A grade 7-9. Lovely statistic and great work, but it suggests 80% were A grades which isn't true.

Schools like that are very good at swinging the comments to look good. Some corkers I've seen are:
"X got 3 grade As in his A-levels despite only being at the school for 2 months" (he sat the exam and no teaching was done by the school.)

"We had the highest A*-C percentage of all schools within 3 miles" (that's because the next nearest school is 3.1 miles away)

"A*/A grades up 25% this year" (but still well below the national average, and only obtained because the previous year was so dire)

"100% of passes this year" (in the course of the article it became clear this was A-E not A-C)

"17A* at X School" with a picture of a happy looking pupil. (In the course of the article this was clear that this was over the entire 240 pupil cohort, not just the one pupil)

"75% of pupils score A or A*" (in one subject, not them all)

And even failing that they can ignore real terms. One local school likes to put out that they got the best results locally. I'm not sure how they measure it, as on any reasonable measure they're middling to bottom, but why allow facts to stick in the way of a good headline.

Our local school is utterly silent too, a contrast to last year - nearly all regional schools sent their headline results to the local city paper/website, including the other three schools in the same MAT, but not our local one. Nothing on twitter or the website. Suspicious! Not the same school as yours though, OP, as this one is in special measures.

Am not sure if it's the same school as the OP but the most highly sought after school in our city with "very leafy" catchment and highly recommended by local MNetters hasn't published anything on local media either. It's Outstanding and usually top of the league tables locally so could be the OPs school.
There is now a statement on the website but no photos of dcs with strings of grade 9s so I presume there weren't any this year.
Am aware of parents at the school whose dcs were predicted grade 9s who may be upset even though I tried to warn them that a grade 9 wasn't possible to predict as teachers' don't know what a grade 9 looks like yet!
100% of passes this year" (in the course of the article it became clear this was A-E not A-C)
For A level grades D and E are passes, the only Fail grade is a U!

to come back to this, still nothing and they go back to school tomorrow. They'll have to report them soon as the local authority will anyway.

Hmm, another one who has noticed this at our school for the latest round of results.

The Gov UK website has high level statistics which allow comparison against other schools and the national average, so have looked at those in the meantime.

I don’t think the govt stats are updated for 2018 results yet.