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September 2015
Abingdon School, along with around
40 other independent schools, has not
appeared for some years in the annual
August league tables. The decision not
to participate was not some fit of pique
at feeling hard done by in the leagues -
far from it in fact - but one taken on the
grounds that publicly ranking schools by
exam results is an absurdly reductive thing
to do. Worse than that - it’s something
that has been allowed to have far too
strong an influence on how people
evaluate a school. However, could the
fascination with rankings be on the decline?
Maybe. Certainly for Abingdon, despite its
withdrawal, the interest in places continues
to rise with applications at an all time high.
Abingdon’s results are published in full
on our website each year, subject by
subject. We have nothing to hide, even
down to the few Cs, Ds, Es and Us that
our boys get. However, simple results tell
you little about the actual teaching that
goes on in a school, and that surely is what
people should be most interested in. The
academic measure of a school is a terribly
hard thing to evaluate – it’s value added.
Does it push the most able into more
stretching activities? Does it encourage
the more modest abilities to achieve their
potential? Overall, does it nurture a life-long
love of learning?
So how do you measure these things?
The answer will never be in a number and
there is no substitute for visiting a school
and doing your research (its website, its
ISI report, its reputation in the area...). A
school’s ethos will also be evident in the
pupils. They will often be very proud of
their school but not blind to its weaknesses.
Don’t expect perfection in a school -
anyone who tries to claim that
all
the
teachers are perennially outstanding or that
there is
absolutely no
bullying of any kind
is quite simply not telling the truth. The
measure to use here is what the school’s
approach to these issues has been.
Ascertain also the quality of its pastoral
provision - a thing impossible to reduce to a
nice neat number but of crucial importance
in knowing if your child is likely to be
happy there. Will this school be a partner
with you on the often bumpy adolescent
journey? Will you have honest and easy
communication with them? Do you sense
they really like and understand children?
How far, too, will the school stretch
your child beyond the academic world?
What is its extra-curricular provision and
policy? Will it be likely both to help already
developing interests prosper as well as
awaken others hitherto dormant?
So, beware of tables that measure only
exam results. They give you one piece
of information and that may well be more
a measure of a school’s selectivity rather
than the thing you’re really interested
in: the quality of education. The figures
themselves are not always as truth-telling as
you might hope. With the increase in types
of qualification available, unsatisfactory
attempts have been made to find
conversions rates for pre-U, IB and A Level.
At GCSE this will only get worse with some
schools having letter grades for iGCSEs
alongside the new 1-9 GCSE scoring
system. Ask yourself too if all grades are
being declared or indeed if pupils destined
not to bring credit to a school have been
‘managed out’ of taking certain subjects: it
has been known to happen. Overall, strive
not to confuse
exams
with
education
. It’s
the latter that you want a school to have
at the heart of its ethos and that’s a much
bigger and more important thing than just
passing exams.
Graeme May, Deputy Head Academic
Abingdon
News
GCSE
The 2015 GCSE results were
outstanding, breaking all previous
records with the highest percentages
of A* and A*/A grades ever achieved
at Abingdon. 32 boys gained an
impressive 10 or more A* grades and
95 boys, over half the year group,
gained all A* or A grades.
A level
The vast majority of boys have secured
their first choice for further education
including Choral and Organ Scholarships
to Oxford and Cambridge, the study
of composition at The Royal Academy
of Music, places at a wealth of Russell
Group universities, prestigious U.S.
colleges and other impressive institutions.
Boys will go on to study a wide range of
subjects including Medicine, Engineering,
the Sciences, MFL, Economics and
Law. Exeter, Bristol and Durham remain
popular for a variety of courses as are
Oxford and Cambridge where boys have
won places for PPE, Modern Languages,
History, Geography, Economics,
Engineering, Classics, Chemistry, Law,
Computer Sciences and Music.
League Tables –
caveat emptor
A Level and GCSE Results
A Level:
22% of passes grade A*
61% grades A*/ A and
90% grades A* to B
GCSE:
60% of passes grade A*
87% grades A*/ A
98% grades A* to B
Full results can be found at
