Barker Gotelee

Two high schools in the county recently received unhelpful publicity as a result of being listed as the worst performers in terms of GCSE results in the county and in the bottom 200 worst performing schools in the UK.  The head-teacher of one of the schools criticised the league tables as being misleading, adding that his school is a fully inclusive school with a broad range of people and abilities from an area ranked as among the 10% most deprived wards in the East of England.  The argument therefore flowing that it is unrealistic to compare such a school to others in wealthier areas or with a lesser proportion of children with special educational needs.

It seems that this head-teacher may not be the only person with reservations about league tables being used by parents to measure the success of a school.  The government recently unveiled its plans to abolish league tables and instead give schools report cards, to include ratings on academic success, truancy levels, sporting prowess, attendance at lunch and the ability to teach children to control their feelings.  Schools will be given a grade based on these criteria.  It is thought that schools with high performing intakes will find it trickier to achieve top scores on this basis and an incongruent series of indicators combined into a single grade could be too simplistic and mislead parents.

The government website www.dcsf.gov.uk sets out it’s initiative ‘Building Schools for the Future’ and quotes the following:  ‘We want every child to…turn 18 with the knowledge, skills and qualifications that will give them the best chance of success in adult life in the 21st century’.  Children who attend higher performing schools will of course stand more chance of obtaining the requisite knowledge, skills and qualifications but will report cards give parents a better opportunity to assess the top performers from the poor performers or is it a myth that parents have a real choice of school for their child anyway?

Nicola Furmston

© Barker Gotelee