How did your DCs school do in the GCSE tables?

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

DD1's got a crummy 38% on the 5A-Cs including English and Maths.
This pisses me off for several reasons.
Results have been declining for several years and this is the first time the figure has dipped under 40%.
The school is utterly complacent about its results and doesn't see them as a problem - they explain them by pointing to the supposedly difficult intake.
This is entirely disingenous - there is only one local primary among their feeder schools that could be said to have a lower than average SATs score and they account for only 10% of the intake. Many of the primary schools in the area, including the one my children attend, have very, very good results, well over the national average.
I do not understand why the school feels it is acceptable to fail its pupils in this way.

A local school coasted for years and then plummeted in the league tables in 2007 - it was all caused by rubbish leadership by the headteacher. The school ended up one step away from special measures yet 5 or so years ago it was highly sought after.

Lady Glencora, your school's problem does sound like weak management unfortunately. It's a killer if you have no other options.

How would I feel in your place, LGP?
Husband and I both attended schools with quite poor reputations/results, and we turned out to do quite well academically; clever/self-motivated kids often manage pretty well in seemingly poor schools. I am more worried about nasty social influences/peer pressure/culture of underachievement being cool, than about academic results in themselves.

Well this is it, lljkk. DD is enjoying the school, all her friends are there and pastorally they are quite good - they have a very good transition programme in place for year 7. Discipline in class is patchy, some teachers are very strict while others struggle to control behaviour. DD sits next to a very noisy boy in maths, who is constantly snatching her workbook and copying her answers,according to her, and the teacher pretends not to notice.
There is a lot of pressure not to be seen to be a 'boff'. I have posted before about DD falsifying her reading record so she appears to be reading much less than she actually is.
TBH, I am not worried about DD1's GCSE results as such, she is bright and self-motivated and I am sure she will be fine. It is the ATTITUDE of the school that infuriates me, they are failing the average, middle-achieving pupils (as their OFSTED report specifically points out) by not expecting very much of them.

Lady GP, your school sounds similar to, or better than, our catchment school. It has scored 36% this year - down on last year when it reached the dizzy heights of low 40's and was acclaimed as one of the countries most improved schools, but up on previous measures as it's steadily increased from high 20's over the last 4-5 years. I suppose at least it's overall trend is improving, but like you I can't figure out why it's so low. It's a nice area, town + villages; primaries seem mostly OK; CVA is 997 (a bit low but now wildly off average) etc, etc. There is another school in the town (which has the slightly nicer side of town in it's catchment), but it's similarly lacklustre too, so I doubt makes much difference to the intake. My dcs go to a private school, but we'd have probably tried to move to a different area if that wasn't an option.

Lady GP if I was in your position I would ask for an appointment to see the HT and list your concerns in advance in a letter so he/she can address them with notice. I would also ask to see everyone of your dd books to check work is being set and marked. If you are not happy make a further complaint to the LEA.

As I said before I am always very wary of making jusgements based on KS2 data but a year on year trend of failing results would worry me. All schools can have a blip year but this sounds like more than that.

I would encourage others to do the same as well LadyGP

School we are in the catchment for has 67% GCSE A-C (seems ok but not that great) but has much better A level results, in the top 25 comps in the country for a level results.

I wonder why it is so much better for A level than GCSE?

happywomble its because it is a good school but a comprehensive so not selective

when the non academics leave at 16 the true worth of the teaching comes through

Thanks for explaining Ria. Hopefully it will still be good when my DCs are old enough to attend!

ds's school came above Eton !

Eton have only recently started academically selecting. I think their first meritoctic cohort have not yet reached GCSE stage.

Meritocratic I meant. Although meritoctic sounds rather good.

100% on the AtoC front - for all 9 subjects.

Huh? Eton have the highest standard of preselection and Common Entrance (65% rather than 55% for everywhere else), and they give out full scholarships to state school boys. Have done for yonks, and certainly for the current cohort.

The reason they have 0% on the league tables is because they do IGCSE Mathematics, which doesn't count towards league tables and importantly they don't do the Mathematics that does count (so get nothing for 5 A-C including Mathematics and English).

96%
Lincs boys grammar

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Sorry, wrong thread.

100% A - C passes here. Grammar school though.

Re the Eton situation and IGCSEs this affects a number of independent schools which have opted for the more rigorous IGCSEs. My Son's school appeared lowerthan would be expected for that reason. I couldn't care less - it is the educution he is benefiting from that matters, not the position in the league tables.

MrsGuy,
One of the things we hear about over and over on Mumsnet is how independent schools only care about their league table position. Obviously not the case, otherwise they wouldn't be doing the more rigorous IGCSEs. My DS also did IGCSE mathematics and got an A*, so he doesn't count as far as league tables are concerned.

Of course, parents who are genuinely considering independent education look beyond government league tables, which seem to evolve to make state schools look better. It would be better if they invested more effectively in actually making them better, not just changing where they are on a list.

MrsGuy,
One of the things we hear about over and over on Mumsnet is how independent schools only care about their league table position. Obviously not the case, otherwise they wouldn't be doing the more rigorous IGCSEs. My DS also did IGCSE mathematics and got an A*, so he doesn't count as far as league tables are concerned.

Of course, parents who are genuinely considering independent education look beyond government league tables, which seem to evolve to make state schools look better. It would be better if they invested more effectively in actually making them better, not just changing where they are on a list.

82% for ours,highly over subscribed faith school.

DS2's old school got 71% including maths and English/ 83% otherwise. I didn't consider it a particularly wonderful school as it did not have the resources to do more than ensure that all that were capable of getting those qualifications could do so. DS1's old school got 0% because it no longer does GCSE Maths (too easy) and does iGCSE instead - usually a year early. It is a much better preparation for A Level Maths (and any other numerate subject).

40% A*-C inc English and Maths according to last week's Grauniad. And it's the best-achieving school around...

Sorry, is our local school, DC's school.