Happy New year! Hope your well and fabulous! Well, School Experience 1 is all over! I was very sad to leave my school, but now I'm back in University until Mid-Feb. So I should hopefully have a bit more time to give this attention and push up it's profile a little. But hey, I enjoy it!
So, what I am discussing today? As you can see, it's League Tables! Yes, dreaded DREADED league tables! Every headmaster has the same nightmare when they are published to see how well they are doing in their LEA (local education authority.)
Firstly, let me get my opinions out of the way. League tables are a terrible thing! Wales scraped League Tables a while back, and it's a great idea. So why do they do it in England? Don't get me wrong reader, I'm a deeply competitive man (as my girlfriend will attest to!) But Education shouldn't be competitive. Who the hell are you trying to beat in the first place? I think it's wrong to publicly humiliate schools. Plus, League Tables don't give much context. For example, you'll find Grammar Schools always at the top of a table. Then after that, the table has no context. For example, pupils who live in a "poor" catchment area are surely going to be near the bottom. Where another school, within a more affluent area will score a higher level. Furthermore, there is no provision on League Tables describing the amount of pupils on the school's SEN register! Some school will have around 10-15% of pupils on the SEN register. However, no school I've applied for as 45% on the SEN register! Nearly 50/50! Insane! Moreover, there's always no provision to tell you how many pupils speak English as an Additional language, now that's a big problem for a very obvious reason!
Long and the short of it, the League Table is a lot of..."cock" frankly to quote James May. Education Secretary Ed Balls, wants school to have a minimum of 30% A*-C 5 GCSE grades, otherwise they will face closure. Now, to the great unwashed (those outside of the Education Profession) think 30% isn't a lot! But I'll show you my home LEA of Sandwell. It has currently 22 Secondary Schools, Academies and Colleges. If the 30% rule came into effect, immediately. 6 schools would be closed right now! With another 4 schools within a 2% margin of dipping below 30%! Incredible! I'll bite my tongue, and just let you have a think about that? What will happen to all those pupils in those schools. The School I attended as a child has a 32% 5 A*-C GCSE grade rate. I remember when I left, it was 40% and the local papers were called in! To celebrate the results!
But, before I go completely destroying League Tables, there is one shining light within them! Just one, but I think it's good. It's the "level 2 CVA (contextual added score.)" This shows the "improvement" of the middle ranked pupils at the school. How much does the school get the most of its pupils potential. Any school with a score over 1000, is above the National Average. Now surely, the area I live must be bad right? It's results are 16.1% behind the National Average for GCSE grades. Sandwell's average is 998.8 Just shy of the magic 1000 point score, but two schools in the top 5% of schools across England for its added score! Yeah, League tables suddenly look more ridiculous! But if you're going to use League tables to look at schools in your area. Check out its Level 2 CVA score. It's probably the best thing going in the League Table System!
In my opinion, I'd scrap League Tables. But I would allow parents to know the school level 2 CVA score. But if you really want a really good idea to what the school is like! Read it's Section 5 Ofsted (Estyn in Wales.) inspection. Again inspections have there bad points, it's to easy to pick out a school's weaknesses. But I think strategies should be offered to help that school improve.
So there you have it, hope you enjoyed reading!
Until Next Time,
Peter
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