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Secondary education

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

Original poster

Parent power 2023

109 replies

ChiefButler · 06/12/2022 19:30

I'm looking for times secondary school league tables as we are looking to move house. Would like to read on paper rather than digital. If memory serves it is December - anyone knows if it has already been published or when?

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Dallasdays · 13/12/2022 15:38

@Parentpower1 Epsom college is in the list, ranked number 134

Parentpower1 · 13/12/2022 16:32

Dallasdays · 13/12/2022 15:38

@Parentpower1 Epsom college is in the list, ranked number 134

Thanks for the information

CowsInFields · 13/12/2022 16:38

I thought I'd update (in case anyone is Interested 😂), the school got back to me, let me know they did not (along with quite a few other schools) submit data this year.

AnonForThisPost · 13/12/2022 17:07

@Parentpower1 they are ranked 134, if that helps.

QuidNon · 06/05/2023 16:41

LondonGirl83 · 11/12/2022 22:01

The only thing the raw results tell you is the general level of the cohort that sat the exams at a school.

If there are two schools you like you need to understand a lot more about them to assess the difference in their results to understand how your child might get on there academically. So for instance, school A could have more A but a lower percentage of A/A/Bs than school B.

Possible reasons why:

  1. School A might not be very good at supporting students and therefore has weak progress data for certain types of pupils. Progress against starting points is available for state schools via the DfE and is available in ISC reports typically (if its good) as well as via the DfE for A-levels for independent schools
  2. School A is a through school and admits children from 3/4 when academic potential is harder to assess and so has a wider ability range despite being very competitive to get into at 11+ and 7+
  3. School A is known to support children with SEN and so has more SEN children on role who are well supported but slightly under perform in exams
  4. School A is working on a trial with government to provide free places to bright children in social care to provide additional pastoral care and opportunities but this has resulted in slightly weaker league table results (real example as far fetched as it sounds from the top 50 schools)
  5. School B has strict entry criteria to its sixth form that prevents weaker students from sitting A-level exams (real examples in the top 50)
  6. School B is known to cull students pre GCSE by pressuring them to leave if they are concerned they'll impact school results (real example- including during difficult life circumstances!)
  7. School B has amazing teaching and gets above average progress for all of their pupils
  8. School A gets a boost of bright pupils into 6th form which skews the A* results
  9. School B has a higher ability cohort at admission at 11+ and its results reflect that with no quality difference in teaching which is why there are fewer Cs at A-level
  10. School B puts untold pressure on pupils to succeed leading to severe mental health problems and don't allow or encourage pupils to take any academic risks
  11. School B parents engage in substantial out of school tutoring throughout secondary which boosts results beyond what the school itself provides

Without knowing the details about the schools you are comparing, their reputations, how the operate, etc drawing any conclusions at all about the quality of the teaching is impossible. Even as a tool for assessing academics rather than holistic education league tables are pretty useless.

MN, in case you ever do a selected thread section, this post should be put near the top there

MumGPT · 07/05/2023 21:02

In the Parent Power 2023 top state secondary school list, I was surprised to find a comprehensive school called St Peter's Catholic School (Guildford) ranking 45. How can this school achieve this without filtering its incoming pupils?

thatsanakedking · 08/05/2023 22:44

Please can somebody with access to the ParentPower site post a screenshot of their methodology for the 2022 listings?

Fwiw, I think it's pretty suspicious that their methodology isn't publicly available before people pay for a subscription!

The "results" are probably self-reported by schools rather than official because the list was published in December 2022, two months before the Government published any official national results. Also, there are many schools thay aren't in the list, including the one where I work (which has better results than some of the schools listed). Does anyone know whether schools pay to be on the list?

If the list isn't objective, its not very useful. I can understand why private schools might want to be on it, for advertising, but if it costs money to appear then I'm less certain about state schools' motivation (other than vanity). Our school is already very over-sunscribed. Putting it in the Times list would just draw in the carpet baggers and drive out the locals!

QuidNon · 09/05/2023 11:26

I don’t have it anymore but I remember checking it at the time and for me it was somewhat but not fully satisfactory. Rankings also change quiet a bit every year depending on the cohort, so I concluded for myself that anything within the top 50 is good enough academically. Beyond that I think you are better to look elsewhere for clues: humanities or stem-leaning, compulsory sports, niche sports, competitive academics, leavers’ destinations, culling after gcses, etc etc

Wlondonmum2022 · 09/05/2023 14:48

“How the rankings were calculatedSchools are ranked by performance at A-level and GCSE in summer 2022. The number of A, A and B grades gained is expressed as a percentage of the total number of A-level entries overall. This is double-weighted. The number of 9, 8, 7, A and A grades gained at GCSE is expressed as a percentage of the total number of GCSE entries overall. We include IGCSEs sat in independent schools. This is single-weighted. School rankings are based on their combined performance in these examinations. Rankings based on performance at A-level or GCSE alone can be found by clicking on the relevant columns in the league table. International Baccalaureate (IB) outcomes have been converted to equivalent A-level grades where schools have asked us to do so. IB Higher level outcomes grades 7, 6 and 5 are equivalent to A-level grades A*AB respectively.
The average UK results are: at A-level, 62.8 per cent of entries were at grades B and above in 2022; at GCSE, 26.3 per cent of entries were at grades 7 and above in 2022.

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