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Secondary education

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

Original poster

Forest School Snaresbrook

60 replies

MarkHemmings · 20/08/2022 17:25

Well, the A-level results are out and it will be interesting to see how well Forest School have done this year. After all, over the past three years the School have conjured up some truly dreadful results. I mean truly awful. Let's wait and see.

OP posts:
CJFJ1 · 25/08/2022 10:37

aletterfromseneca · 25/08/2022 08:23

So, if I am reading this correctly: you found your time at forest to be bad because of the answer you felt they implied you should give during your law interview that didn’t go down well? And then, despite your own exam results being good, you think this school specifically needs a thread to criticise them as they have charity status and your tax money goes towards them?

Which other fee paying schools are listed as charities and are below average? Average implies a median, and so there must by definition be more than just Forest. Should you not list all of them to dispel the notion that you are on a very pointed, personally motivated mission? Yet you haven’t.

As another poster has mentioned, Westminster for one, had a below average progress / value added score from the DfE in 2019.

But as I've already mentioned upthread, a negative or below average progress / value added score from the DfE does not mean a school is failing - as the DfE points out itself: A negative progress score does not mean students made no progress, or the school or college has failed, rather it means students in this school or college made less progress than other students across England with similar results at the end of key stage 4.

tonicwaterparty · 25/08/2022 11:29

Well Forest's GCSE results are out today: 41% of GCSEs were Grade 9 and 86% were 9,8, or 7. Which seems pretty decent.

CJFJ1 · 25/08/2022 12:03

tonicwaterparty · 25/08/2022 11:29

Well Forest's GCSE results are out today: 41% of GCSEs were Grade 9 and 86% were 9,8, or 7. Which seems pretty decent.

Yes - highest ever GCSE results, surpassing the teacher assessed grades of 2020 and 2021: www.forest.org.uk/best-ever-gcse-results-at-forest-school/

Original poster
MarkHemmings · 25/08/2022 12:13

I agree it's a 'weird thread' as you put it. Of course, parents consider the whole package a school can offer. However, presumably this will include academic performance unless their children don't need to work for a living. My point is really quite straightforward - exam results are a bit of a problem for Forest School and have been so for a number of years. Other commentators can claim what they like using phrases such as the School are a 'stellar performer' and 'top-flight'. But these descriptors are simply not accurate. The most recent DfE data show the School are 'below average' in relation to A level results.

OP posts:
tonicwaterparty · 25/08/2022 12:32

MarkHemmings · 25/08/2022 12:13

I agree it's a 'weird thread' as you put it. Of course, parents consider the whole package a school can offer. However, presumably this will include academic performance unless their children don't need to work for a living. My point is really quite straightforward - exam results are a bit of a problem for Forest School and have been so for a number of years. Other commentators can claim what they like using phrases such as the School are a 'stellar performer' and 'top-flight'. But these descriptors are simply not accurate. The most recent DfE data show the School are 'below average' in relation to A level results.

No, the (2019) data clearly don't show that the school is "below average" in relation to A-Level results except in the single and specific context of progress relative to other children. Even Eton College also has a negative progress score, but is similarly not "below average".

T

Original poster
MarkHemmings · 25/08/2022 12:52

I don't particularly like the notion of league tables because they are a form of modernist, neo-right, managerialism. However, they exist and are supposed to assist readers in choosing between options. In our case parents between schools in relation to the criterion of academic success. Plainly, we don't agree about how best to interpret the DfE league table in question. That doesn't really matter too much because parents can read it for themselves - can't they.

OP posts:
aletterfromseneca · 25/08/2022 13:49

So you don’t agree in tables but they are the data by which you are proving Forest underperforms?

Original poster
MarkHemmings · 25/08/2022 15:32

I don't like them at all ... but I accept they're real ... I would prefer the moon to be made of cream cheese but I accept it's not ... that's the problem with the obdurate nature of reality isn't it

OP posts:
tonicwaterparty · 25/08/2022 16:20

MarkHemmings · 25/08/2022 12:52

I don't particularly like the notion of league tables because they are a form of modernist, neo-right, managerialism. However, they exist and are supposed to assist readers in choosing between options. In our case parents between schools in relation to the criterion of academic success. Plainly, we don't agree about how best to interpret the DfE league table in question. That doesn't really matter too much because parents can read it for themselves - can't they.

True, we don't agree. But then if I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.

shalom1 · 26/05/2023 00:40

Sorry I am a bit late but OP you are a bit weird

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