Schools
League tables don’t tell the whole story Andrew Fleck offers some perspective I am occasionally asked about the value of league tables and where Sedbergh features. The answer to the latter question is more straight-forward than to the former. The question whether league tables have value is determined by the person who reads them and, in common with any set of measurements, it is important to understand what they show. If the reader values what league tables measure, then they have value. When considered as a whole, a school’s position in the league tables is the product of its selectivity, its balance of educational priorities and the strategies used to enhance its position. It follows that league tables are likely to be useful to a parent who has access to a number of different schools and who is seeking a school which is defined solely by its academic success. They will be less informative to parents who may seek the benefits of broader education and who value the development of the character and personality of their child alongside academic attainment. The first league table was published by the Daily Telegraph in 1966 and they became important in the mid 1990s. As they
gained importance, schools developed strategies to enhance their position. This included asking pupils to leave school after GCSE or midway through their A levels if they had not reached a certain threshold. In some cases, schools have developed subsidiary organisations so that they can stream pupils according to their ability and thereby enhance the position of the core organisation. These are some of the unintended sideeffects of the league tables. Perhaps the best assessment is that they provide an insight into a school and may be a starting point for discussion. Quite a small difference in percentage points will lead to large variations in position that will be of no significance to an individual pupil. All schools are able to measure how well their pupils perform in relation to their individual ability and other schools. This Value-Added measure is more relevant and may be more interesting to a parent and pupil. Sedbergh does not provide information for league tables since they fail to reflect the unique character and value of a Sedbergh education. Ours is a broad education which properly embraces academia, the arts and sports, as well as a social and
Spring 2017
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