How are schools on the Sunday Times Parent Power list chosen?

[jillybill]

I'm not a Times subscriber, and don't particularly want to be one but I'm aware of people mentioning their Parent Power list of schools. I'm curious about how they choose the schools for the list. (My own children are older now, but I'm a school governor, so my interest is from that perspective). When I google the question, the answer seems to be behind the pay-wall here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-we-chose-the-best-schools-in-the-uk-2022-2ws3w568d

... which is a shame, because some people might want to read that before deciding if the list is worth paying for. 🙄 Can anyone who does have a subscription summarise it for me?

I'm interested to know if schools pay to be considered for the list, and also where the Times got the schools' 2022 results from (because results weren't published by the Government until after the Times list was published, and, due to Covid, they weren't published in league table format this year). I suppose they may have asked the schools to submit their own results but, if so, they certainly didn't ask all schools in the country - that's why I'm thinking it might be something schools have to subscribe to.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4692885-parent-power-2023?page=1

This thread has discussion at length

I don't know how they are chosen but I would take those things with a pinch of salt.
I was at the 6th form of a school which was rated by one of the newspapers as in the top 100 one year.
They achieved it by ignoring issues (so they didn't get known) and manipulating things.
So, for example, a boy in the year above me was "expelled" for having too long hair about a fortnight before A-levels. Otherwise known as his results were looking fairly dodgy. There were similar "unfortunately unable to continue at this school" in my year.
The article on the school commented how brilliantly their drug/smoking policy worked because "there was no evidence of any". Hollow laughter from the 6th formers. Freely available with older ones dealing to the younger ones. If they were caught then they'd tell the head if anything was said then they'd go to the papers and say how big an issue it was. Head would back down immediately and nothing more was said because they didn't want it known.6th formers were frequently approached by younger ones asking to buy them cigarettes, or ask <known dealer> to come out so they could buy from them.

Thanks, I've seen it. It doesn't answer my questions, but I did get the below quote from it, which I suppose does imply that schools submit their own results. So they must subscribe to some sort of account, but its not clear whether (or how much) they pay for it:

09/05/2023 14:48
“How the rankings were calculated: Schools 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 Star 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 Star,A,B 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.

I think better to email the editor for information

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/helen-davies

The league table isn't very useful. All the high achieving sixth form college wasn't in the list and the list weighted so heavy on A levels...

@jillybill , schools owned by the Woodward Schools group such as Lancing College rarely feature so I think schools choose to subscribe.

I believe the schools choose to subscribe as mentioned. When I queried with DS school they simply stated they opted out.

Try copying the link & pasting it into archive dot ph - it avoids the paywall.

My understanding is that Schools don’t ‘subscribe’ to it, I.e no fees are paid (unlike other Good Schools genre style guides, but they do permit their data to be published. For years, Eton did not permit their data to be published on the list. I think It is the same data submitted to the govt. If you recall, when during the pandemic no exams were sat and grades were determined by teacher assessment, the Dept of Education did not permit schools to publish their data. The parent power was then a bit of a misnomer.

One op has noted, but worth saying again, they double weight A Level results. This means gcse results are not seen as being as important, but actually, there is so much movement after gcse that I think getting through gcse with the best results is more important! That’s why we ignored the overall rank and focused on gcse rank. If you use 12footladder (website) you can get behind any paywall and access the list