School league tables called a 'nonsense' after change in rules

Some of England's top secondary schools have branded the latest school league tables a "nonsense" after a change in the government ranking system left them "bottom of the class".

The league tables no longer include International GCSEs, a qualification favoured by many independent and leading state schools as a more rigorous assessment than the standard GCSEs.

They were given the official seal of approval by the coalition government in 2010, but ministers have now decided that pupils should take new "more ambitious" GCSEs, currently being phased into schools, and have dropped IGCSE results from the tables.

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Top-performing schools offering the IGCSE exam have therefore plummeted down the rankings, falling from a 100 per cent pass rate last year to zero per cent this year, says The Independent.

Richard Harman, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, said the decision had made a "nonsense" of the league tables.

"Several of the UK's most highly performing independent schools and others offering this excellent qualification will now appear to be bottom of the class in the government's rankings," he told the BBC.

"This obviously absurd situation creates further confusion for parents as they cannot compare schools' performance accurately and transparently."

In another change, this year's tables only took into account a pupil's first attempt at a qualification, even if they achieved a better result by re-sitting the exam.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said that schools had been issued guidance on the changes to the system, which had previously "rewarded the wrong outcomes".

He added that ministers have "stripped out qualifications that were of little value and are making sure pupils take exams when they are ready, not before".

An editorial in today's Independent says the government should "think more carefully" about the consequences of changes before introducing them, but that headteachers should also avoid "panic reactions" to every change from Whitehall.

As Jon Coles, chief executive of United Learning, tells the newspaper, "increasing schools' focus on the needs of their pupils does require a reduced focus on the wishes of government".