State versus Private Education

A couple of newpaper articles yet again highlighting the academic advantages of private education, and the failure of even the supposed flagship state schools. Perhaps one of the days we'll get a government which can work out the best way to do things, and actually put it into practice, but then again one day we might find out that the moon is really made of cheese!

Private and single sex schools still top A level and GCSE league tables

Private and single sex schools continue to dominate league tables published today for last summer’s A level and GCSE results.

Of the top 50 schools with the highest scores at A level, all but three were in the independent sector.

St Paul’s Girl’s School in London heads the table with an average of 267.4 points per A-level student, followed by Westminster School, Perse School for Girls in Cambridge and Guildford High School.

The three state schools to make the top 50 for A-level results were Latymer School in Enfield, Kendrick school in Reading and Henrietta Barnett School in North London. All are grammar schools.

Among the top 50, 27 are girls schools, 14 are boys schools and 9 are mixed.

At GCSE level in 118 schools every student entered achieved at least five good passes, at grades A*-C, including maths and English.

Of these, 58 were independent schools and 60 state schools: 28 were foundation schools (largely former grant maintained schools), 21 were voluntary aided and church schools, 2 were voluntary controlled faith schools and 9 were community schools.

Of the 118 whose students scored a 100 per cent success rate in achieving five good GCSEs, 56 were girls schools, 37 were mixed and 25 were boys schools.

The full story available from here : Private and single sex schools still top A level and GCSE league tables - Times Online

Flagship academy schools failing to meet GCSE targets

A quarter of the Government's flagship academies are failing to meet its targets for GCSE results, it emerged today, as school league tables for 2009 were published.

There are 41 academies among the 247 schools which are still failing to meet the Government target that at least 30 per cent of pupils should obtain five good GCSEs (A*-C) including English and maths.

No school is supposed to be in this position by 2011, according to the Government's National Challenge initiative.

There are 196,128 pupils on the roll at the 247 schools that still fall below the 30 per cent benchmark, the league tables show. Of these, 37,867 pupils sat GCSEs in August.

A further 54 schools which fell below the target have since closed their doors, bringing the total number of underperforming schools for 2009 to 301.

Schools which fail to meet the threshold have been warned that they could be closed or turned into an academy — yet today’s figures show that 41 of the Government’s flagship academies are among the schools failing to meet the target.

They includes Unity City Academy in Middlesbrough, which was one of the first opened in 2002. Just 23 per cent of the pupils at this academy got five C grades, including English and maths.

And of the 122 academies reporting results in 2009, 32 were in the league table of the 200 worst schools in the country.

The full story available from here : Flagship academy schools failing to meet GCSE targets - Times Online