Can private schools avoid publishing their exam results?

[hedwigsbeak]

Or do they have to publish them somewhere? I can't see last year's GCSE or A level results for my child's school anywhere online and just wondering why not!

For most private schools, their success at GCSEs and A levels is their most important piece of marketing. I'd be very surprised it it's not on their website somewhere. Just might be under a weird heading like "destinations". If not, ask the school.

They don’t have to disclose anything they don’t want to. One of the schools we applied to a few years back had some headline figures online but no breakdown by subject (and no mention of English or maths).

I asked to see them. Three times. I was told I could only see a hard copy and not make copies or notes. Yeah - they weren’t very good. The whole secrecy was more off putting than the results though.

State schools don't have to publish theirs either. Private schools tend to as parents want to see the detail.

They usually have them under academic or exams on their web pages - it might be that it hasn't yet been updated but the ones I know do that ASAP because it is their main selling point, especially the non-selective ones.

You can get a rough idea looking at the league tables (Times) but a few grammar schools local to us have stopped publishing their results on there as they weren't doing very well.

Thanks guys. Yes I was getting worried there was something to hide. Funny I've scoured the school website a few times over recent weeks as my child's started Y7 and I'm second guessing the school choice! Just checked again now though and they've put them on! 😂 The GCSEs are in line with what I'd expected (it's not a super academic school) A levels are not great which may be why they've not hurried to pop them on there! Anyway, mystery solved. Thanks for the info everyone

State schools DO have to publish theirs, but the detail they choose to go above and beyond this is up to them.

Key stage 4
Secondary schools must publish their most recent key stage 4 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising:

• their Progress 8 score
• the percentage of their pupils who achieved a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and GCSE maths
• their Attainment 8 score

They should also publish:

• the percentage of their pupils staying in education or going into employment after key stage 4
• the percentage of their pupils who were entered for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
• their EBacc average point score (APS)

@hedwigsbeak if the school does GCSEs and A levels then the attainment (but not progress) results will be published on the Government's 'Compare Schools' website along with the results of all state schools: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/find-a-school-in-england

However, if they do iGCSEs and the iBacc then those results won't be published nationally.

Some private schools do a mix of qualifications, in which case the Compare Schools website won't give a full picture.

Ours have only just put theirs up too 😃 I know that there has been a delay from DfE confirming grades though this year.

Some schools wait until all re-marks are back before they publish results. Though that's usually before Christmas.

I just looked at the link @so2speak and it looks like lots of the figures are missing for my child's school. I think I remember that they do some iGCSEs as well as normal ones so fits with what you're saying.

Fair enough about having to wait for re-marks too, I hadn't really thought about that!