Just where did your local school come in the league tables?

School’s ruled-out exam blamed for low score

Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys found itself in the unfamiliar position of bottom of the pile after the latest league tables were published last week.

The selective in Nackington Road found itself among the county’s failing schools on the all important Progress 8 score.

It determines the progress pupils have made from leaving primary school to the end of their secondary education. A score above zero indicates positive progress.

Langton Boys recorded -1.39 – rated “well below average”.

Also used are the percentage of pupils scoring a grade 5 or higher for English and maths. Grade 5 is the equivalent of a high C grade.

But the Langton Boys found itself having to explain how it recorded 0%.

The league tables have long been seen as one of the most influential factors in parents’ decision making processes about their child’s secondary education.

As the Gazette has reported before, the reason is the school’s insistence on continuing with an IGCSE in English – an exam the government has now ruled out of being counted in school league tables.

Head of school Ken Moffat explained: “The standard English GCSES have for 10 years been really boring and insipid courses which have turned kids off studying English at A-level.

“We felt the IGCSES were intellectually more challenging, more stimulating and more pleasurable courses to both teach and study.

“Why some idiot of a mandarin in Whitehall should decide that they can’t count in official statistics doesn’t make any sense to me and is a decision that could only be made in a culture that values league tables and results

above all else in education.

“The school has happily followed the IGCSE in English in recent years alongside other successful schools, such as Eton and King’s Canterbury.”

The school admitted it will revert to the more traditional course in the spring.

Elsewhere, the rest of the district’s schools delivered mixed results – see table above.

Barton Court Grammar in Longport was ranked top in the district with its Progress 8 score ranked as 0.55% – well above average. It saw 88% of its students get grade 5 or above in English and maths. Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar was second with a 0.43 Progress 8 score and a 90% pass rate.

Next was non-selective Catholic school St Anselm’s, which ranked third in the district, with an average Progress 8 score of 0.15 and 19% pass rate.

HEAD: Ken Moffat