Northern school rankings - how??

[benthecat]

This article caught my eye re the rankings for Northern Independent Schools www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17245279.bradford-grammar-top-three-in-sunday-times-schools-list/

Seemingly Queen Ethelburga’s ranks above St Peters, BGS and GSAL which I find odd because when you look at, for example, the leavers destinations each year for these schools, QE is not sending its pupils to the best universities whereas the others send loads to Oxbridge/Russell Group every year. How is QE outranking the others when the actual achievements of its pupils don’t seem to show this? How do these rankings work???!

QE is well known for having two exam centres. Pupils who don't have sufficiently good AS results at the end of Y12 are shuffled into the Faculty of QE's (I think that's the name) and can even be taken off A level courses and made to do BTECs. This keep the results of the other exam centre high. Same thing happens at GCSE. I have direct knowledge of this as I teach nearby.

Waves to any QE lawyers reading the thread

So just a handful of pupils could end up doing Alevels as compared to the other schools? Basically comparing apples and pears.

I would certainly suggest that you look beyond the headline pass rate to the number of students in each of the two centres and the types of qualifications they take.

Why exam boards let QEs get way with having two centres, I have no idea.

*get away

This thread will self destruct in 5, 4, 3...

I was wondering whether anyone had started a thread yet...

Other posters have already said what I was going to say.
They have 2 centres on the same site. Any student who would benefit from a more vocational pathway is steered to an alternative route through the Faculty.
in other words they are only interested in high fliers in the main school who will make them look good in the league tables

But the lawyers will be out in force again to shut down any challenge from what I've heard.