Thursday, January 13, 2005

League Tables

Quote of the moment: "Telford scored an average of 760.3 points per student, more than 100 points better than its nearest rival" - The Times School Report, published today.

According to the new way of calculating the league tables, all GCSE level qualifications are taken into account, not just the best 8 as done previously. Hence Thomas Telford School has managed to leapfrog everyone else, because pupils there take an online GNVQ in "Information and Communication Technology" in addition to their GCSEs. Wow... I'm speechless. How impressive. They know how to use the internet.

Obviously schools that focus on subjects such as maths, languages and physics aren't particularly impressed, and with obvious reason. A comprehensive with pupils who get the equivalent of 12 A* to C grades is judged as doing better than independant and grammar schools with pupils getting all A and A* grades in academic subjects. I'm sure they are doing better for their pupils, but it would be stupid to pretend that a pupil from Telford with the equivalent of 12 B grades would be considered by any university worth the name to be better than someone with, say, 5 A*s, 3 As and a B. I think Jimmy wins:

YA!

An extra bonus video for your viewing pleasure:
Prill in her rocking chair

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