The Independent Schools Council is a politically independent, not-for-profit organisation representing 1,270 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children. It exists to promote choice, diversity and excellence in education, developing talent at all levels of ability and from all backgrounds.
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School League Tables
Written by Holly HarrisOver the last few weeks, thousands of students have received IB, A-level, AS-level, IGCSE and GCSE level exam results. Families across the UK will have been looking at newspaper ‘school league tables’ in order to find out which are the ‘best’ schools around. There is no doubt that some schools achieve consistently high exam grades, and that these can be reflected in grade and point tables. Nor, however, is there any doubt that it is impossible for such ‘league’ tables to take into account the pastoral care, soft skills and many other facets of education that are essential parts of schooling. Basing one’s school choice on school league table positions may not, therefore, be the best method.
A small rural day school with ten pupils in Year 13 may achieve fewer A graded A levels than a large boarding school with state-of-the-art facilities. However, the close-knit community feel, warmth and individual attention that its staff are able to provide to pupils may be the qualities that put the smaller school head and shoulders over its competitors and make it an extremely popular secondary school overall. This is one of the reasons for which ISC and its constituent member associations do not support or publish school league tables: they place a disproportionate emphasis on grade attainment in the ranking of schools.
The other difficult area regarding league tables concerns the different ways in which they are assembled, depending on who is constructing them. A school that does well in one school league table can find itself ranked lower in another because of the way points have been calculated or subjects excluded (for example General Studies). How is a parent supposed to know which schools did in fact get the ‘best’ A level results if three school league tables show one school ranked in a different position in each?
It is therefore particularly important that the alphabetical spreadsheet of results produced by ISC is available for public view. Not only does it show the raw results data from ISC schools that have chosen to be included in the spreadsheet, but it is guaranteed that every single results submission has been manually, rigorously checked by a member of the ISC Research and Intelligence team.
If you are interested in the exam performance of a particular ISC school, please look it up on the ISC website under ‘Publications’. By all means take an interest in schools’ rankings in August’s league tables, but remember that caution is advisable in any use or interpretation of them.
Now that school league table season draws to a close, ISC would like to let schools know how appreciative the research team is of the time dedicated by schools to submitting results at a very hectic time of year. The team hopes that its work on data collection reflects the consistently high standard of performance of ISC pupils, and shares schools’ frustration with the ranking of schools in league tables.
Interested in further information about school league tables?
Read our blog - School league tables, websites and independent schools guides: How do I decide which school is best for my child?
Visit our School Leage Table page in the ISC Parent Zone.
Related posts:
- School league tables, websites and independent schools guides: How do I decide which school is best for my child?
- A big thank you from the Research & Intelligence team
- London Borough School Search (Independent schools)
- A Bright Spark: ‘Gifted and Talented’ in the Independent Sector
- Independent Schools – A Well Rounded Education
Neil Jones Says:
Holly,
There is also the same, very real & immediate problem facing prep & independent primary schools. We follow the National Curriculum, the natural extension of which is to assess pupil progress against learning goals through KS2 SATs in May. We still have to wait for the annual debacle that is the Sunday Times Parent Power league tables which aggregate KS2 SATs results and rank schools according to their scores. We have no control. It is just done!
The point that the Times seems to miss is that we are Independent & that scores, as you say, do not reflect the schools themselves. It deliberately misleads parents because we are not in an arms race to reach ever more impossible levels of achievement, as are our beleaguered colleagues in the maintained sector. We are in it for the children & the annual publicity is unnecessary.
As a head, giving tours, such “statistics” are more grist to the mill and can serve as an excellent point of discussion with prospective parents, and indeed current parents.