Friends of Grammar Schools

A-level achievement shows that able pupils and teachers are ready for even greater academic challenges.

CHRIS WOODHEAD   1462 words

Publication date: 15 November 2009 Source: The Sunday Times

Page: 1  (c) 2009 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved  

Separated by the tiniest possible margin, six schools compete at the top of this year’s independent table for the coveted No 1 slot. A total of 99.2% of A-level candidates at Perse Girls and the Stephen Perse Sixth Form College were awarded A or B grades, while 98.3% of students at Magdalen College School, Oxford achieved A* or A grades at GCSE. More startling still, 93.6% of all entries earned Alevel A grades at St Paul’s Girls’ School and 81.9% of entries earned GCSE A*s at Westminster. Whatever we might think about the intellectual rigour of today’s examinations these are incredible results, and the best state schools are close behind. 

I have visited a good number of these schools. The argument that they are examination factories interested only in improving their league table position is nonsense. In my experience it is the schools that achieve the best academic results that offer the most exciting range of extracurricular activities and the most supportive pastoral care. 

It is equally absurd to suggest that top-performing schools are highly selective ones, full stop. Yes, the ability of the students admitted to a school is an important factor in considering that school’s success. But so, too, is the excellence of the teaching its pupils receive. Bright students need passionate and expert teachers to challenge their thinking and raise their expectations. It is such teaching that explains the phenomenal results achieved by these schools and the eight Parent Power Schools of the Year. 

That said, these outstanding successes raise serious questions about the examination system. In that the purpose of an examination is to identify the candidates who really deserve the highest grades, the debate about whether GCSE and A-levels have been dumbed down is an irrelevance. This year, 71 independent and 12 state schools had 90% or more students achieving A/B grades at A-level. Six years ago, the figures were 25 and one respectively. 

Those who defend today’s examination standards, arguing that improved results reflect the greater ability and dedication of the students and the effectiveness of their teachers, dismiss this as a wickedly elitist question. Examinations, they argue, should be an opportunity for every candidate, however ignorant and ill-prepared, to show ability. Perhaps, but when marks are awarded for putting your name on your exam script, one wonders whether a generous sentiment has not been overdone. I worry more about the fact that we have no way of recognising the genuinely outstanding student than I do about the possibility that not everybody would win a prize if standards were to be raised – so that fewer students gained top grades, and, at the other end of the scale, more failed. 

You would have thought that top universities would have welcomed the government’s introduction next year of an A* grade at A-level. Some have. But others appear to worry that the new hurdle will disadvantage students from state schools and are saying that, for now at least, they will ignore this initiative. It is a classic example of the sentimental egalitarianism which threatens the existence of our most prestigious universities and militates against the radical reform the examination system really needs. 

Tinkering with the A grade is not enough. Examinations matter. They determine the topics to be studied and define the level of the academic expectation. The teachers in the schools which appear in Parent Power today challenge their able students in spite of, rather than because of, the expectations of GCSEs and A-levels. 

An increasing number of the most prestigious independent schools are abandoning GCSEs and A-levels, preferring to enter pupils for the IGCSE and, at 18, either the international baccalaureate (IB) or the Pre-U examinations. Others are reducing the number of GCSEs their pupils are prepared for in order to spend time on what they call “enrichment classes” where, they say, the real intellectual work is done. 

If Labour were to win the next election, reform is unlikely. Ed Balls, the secretary of state, wants the government’s new diploma for 14 to 19-year-olds to be “the qualification of choice” and hopes that it becomes so popular that A-levels “wither on the vine”. He thinks one qualification can cater for the needs of the potential Oxbridge scholar and the 16-year-old desperate to leave school and get a job. In fact, the diploma is a doomed hybrid: on the one hand it is too academic, as a recent study found, for the less able, and, on the other, it is nowhere near rigorous enough, as eminent scientists have stated on more than one occasion, to stretch the more able. 

A Conservative victory could possibly offer some hope. Michael Gove, shadow schools secretary, has criticised the diploma. He has spoken about the need to restore academic rigour to the curriculum. Would, though, a Tory government have the political courage to challenge the vested interests: an educational establishment that does not want to have its achievements questioned, aided and abetted by parents who are expecting their children to be awarded top grades? 

Serious reform would without doubt leave blood on the tracks. 

What, though, is the alternative? Will next year’s Sunday Times table see a couple of dozen schools neck and neck at the top of the list because the GCSE and A-level examinations are too easy for their gifted students? Will the A*-B pass rate at A-level hit 100%? Will the percentage of students achieving A (and the new A*) grades rise to a third or more? And, if so, what possible value will these grades add to university admissions procedures? 

These are the questions I am asked whenever I talk to teachers in top-performing schools. “What is the point of it all?” they say. “These examinations have no relevance to the students in our classes. Worse, they get in the way of what we want to teach. Why can’t anybody in power understand what is obvious?” There are two answers to this question. The first is that dumbed down examinations suit ministers as well as teachers and parents. “Look”, they can say to the electorate, “your children are doing better on our watch. Our policies are working. 

Vote for us next time round.” 

The second is that politicians and educationalists alike appear to believe that equality of opportunity means that all children should follow the same curriculum and be entered for the same examination. 

Hence the hostility to selection on grounds of academic ability, the decision in the 1980s to merge the old O-level examination with the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE), and now the diploma. 

The truth, of course, is that some children are highly intelligent and others are not. This year’s Parent Power guide celebrates the achievements of some of the brightest students in the country and the schools they had the good fortune to attend. Just think, though, what they and their teachers could have done if the system was designed to challenge further their exceptional abilities. 

Chris Woodhead is a former chief inspector of schools 

Find the best schools at timesonline.co.uk/parentpower 

Go to timesonline.co.uk/ parentpower for the full 2009-10 Sunday Times survey of Britain’s leading schools. Our fully searchable online database contains 2,000 schools spanning state and independent sectors, primary and secondary education and all four countries of the United Kingdom. These are the definitive school listings, ranking schools on their academic achievements. Enter your postcode to find the best schools near where you live. You can also search for schools by name, town, local authority area and region, as well as plotting the schools closest to you via our unique Googlemap. In addition to displaying examination results going back as far as 2003, there are links from the Parent Power website to latest inspection reports and school websites. You can even search for houses in nearby areas using our Globrix weblink. 

PARENT POWER SCHOOLS OF THE YEAR 

State Secondary The Latymer School, London 

Independent Secondary Withington Girls’ School, Manchester 

State Primary Manor Primary School, Wolverhampton 

Independent Preparatory Kensington Prep School, London 

International Baccalaureate King’s College School, Wimbledon 

Scottish State Secondary Mearns Castle School, Newton Mearns 

Scottish Independent Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh 

Northern Ireland Secondary St Mary’s Grammar School, Magherafelt 

FINDING THE BEST 

The best 2,000 schools online timesonline.co.uk/ parentpower