Whenever the school league tables come out, I can't resist taking a peek at how my old comprehensive fared. 54% managed five or more GCSE passes (not good, but better than previous years, I think). Average A-Level points, 107. My wife's inner-city comp scored 37% and 203 points.
Then I look at my eldest son's grammar school, which is on a much nicer side of the tracks: 97% and 396 points.
I'm not sure what the moral of that story is (the other big comprehensive in my home town did pretty well, rated at 78% and 308 pts). I'm just glad we still have grammars in our area.
PS: I took the Daily Mail's advice and checked the GCSE passes in Maths and English. A very different picture. My school scored 27%, my wife's got 26%. The figure at my son's school was 97%, again:
Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said too many pupils were being "nudged" into taking easier subjects to help boost their school's league ranking. He said: "Without the information about English and maths and with so many things run together, the tables are in effect meaningless."
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