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Look beyond the league tables for the full picture

Friday 22 January 2016

WEB perf tables 488

This week the Department for Education (DfE) published its annual school performance tables. Taken at face value, it seems that some well-regarded schools in the region are languishing in the lower reaches of the rankings for their GCSE outcomes.

In fact these schools, including The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL), have an impressive record of success in GCSE examinations. At GSAL in 2015 examinations, 38% of all grades awarded were A* and 88% were at grade B or above, but the league tables record zero for the number of pupils attaining the benchmark of five good GCSEs.

The reason is that the DfE does not include the IGCSE (International GCSE) in its data and many independent schools opt for this version of the GCSE in certain subjects.

Mrs Sue Woodroofe, GSAL’s incoming Principal, said: “For many leading independent schools, zero in the league tables can nevertheless mean excellent examination performance.  While performance tables have merit, they only tell part of the story and can be misleading as a comparison.  They exclude IGCSE results, thus do not accurately reflect the academic outcomes for schools choosing this well-established, rigorous qualification.”

“At GSAL, we choose IGCSE courses in subjects including mathematics, science and modern languages.  IGCSEs are chosen where we believe it offers the best curriculum for our pupils, the most engaging subject matter, and the best preparation for A-level.  Our results consistently justify this approach, with our pupils achieving grades well above the national average at GCSE and repeating this success in sixth form, as demonstrated by our strong A-level performance.”

GSAL’s 100% pass rate in 2015 A-levels, with 81% of all grades awarded at A* to B, gives the school an average point score of 908.3, which by the narrowest of margins (just 0.9 point from the top spot) places the school second in Leeds for A-level outcomes.

View the DfE school performance tables

View GSAL’s latest A-level and GCSE results.

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