Chigwell dropped in the rankings - why?

[Butterfliesandbutter]

Chigwelll School in Essex seems to have plummeted in the recent Times rankings - from rank 94 last year to rank 184 this year. It's now ranked 210 for A-levels and 140 for GCSEs, so it seems that both must have dropped a lot.

Does anyone have any insights? What's going on?!

I don't know about the Times list in particular...

But many of the lists usually use Progress 8 score in addition to Attainment scores for rankings. For the next few years, this data won't be available so they have to rely on just Attainment scores. So a school which has a higher than average intake and a higher than average GCSE score will do better than the schools with a more average intake that achieve a higher than average GCSE score.

Also there are 1000s of schools. There is usually little difference between ones near each other in rankings

Thanks - interesting to note about state schools, but Chigwell is independent. That said, the Times rankings also includes state schools and has their Progress 8 scores - maybe they won't be available next year, or maybe schools will keep using the most recently available scores.

Not a current parent but someone who looked at the school previously. I suspect it’s just a slight drop in performance and some other schools doing better. For example GCSEs in 2024 for 9/8 was 55% and then for 2025 it dropped to 46%. I think A levels may have dropped slightly too. Don’t think there is anything wrong with the school, with not wanting to state the obvious it appears that cohort hasn’t performed as well as previous and if you look at the list there are a number which have shot up a lot so they have obviously performed much better than previous. our DC’s school has a much better GCSE result than last year but still dropped as well as others have just done better. It’s a good school, but it’s never been as academic as schools like Bancroft as far as I am aware so while 184 is low, I don’t think it’s ever achieved within say top 75?

Also not sure if they publish their value add scores (which I think are independents progress 8 equiv but not sure), however I’m sure if you are interested you can ask. This would give an indication as to whether the value add has remained the same but the cohort they have accepted are all round just lower attainment or if they are not actually helping children achieve higher grades than they are predicted.

@Tiredofbeing I don't think any independents publish their value added score, do they? I'd love to see them, but I can't see why they'd share transparently.

@TheNightingalesStarling Thanks, good points. You're right, I think it was around 125 moving towards 100 in recent years - never top 75 - but it seems like a school on the up that was doing really well and I guess i just imagined the ranking would continue to improve. It's not just one cohort but two, as both GCSE and A-level rankings are down. It's a long distance from Bancroft's, which I think is ranked 37-38 or so.

But reassuring perhaps so far that there's no alarming explanation coming out yet . . .

It has plummeted since Damian King joined, the worst leadership I have ever encountered. I have a few contacts still there and there is multiple allegations against him. He is dishonest and needs to leave as soon as possible before this school gets the worst reputation

Interesting, @jennyjungle1 , thanks. I'd heard parents speak highly of him and he's a very good public speaker, so it's Interesting to hear this other view. Can you elaborate at all about what he doesn't do well and how that might be leading to lower grades? Is it the student cohort, the teachers, the teaching, something else?

My daughter is about to leave. The school has been a real failed investment for her. They completely missed her dyslexia. Teaching has gone down hill. Poor leadership. Teachers who should not be teaching. The list goes on. I had a son there too and have seen the decline.

Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear that! Is she changing schools or has finished school? Do you have more positive experience of other schools?

My DD went to a completely different school and that has also gone down in attainment and league tables. My view is that school ethos comes into play and leadership direction. What direction does SLT want? With our school, the head when we were there was keen on girls having careers and strong academics. Parents bought in and brighter girls applied. It was great in many ways. Then a new head arrived who very much wanted rich parents and a finishing school ethos. Brighter dc went elsewhere. It’s still got healthy numbers but not the academics or ethos it once had. It sounds like this school is not recruiting the brightest dc or they are leaving, hence league table position is going down.