This really does piss me off. Leagues tables mean absolutely nothing in terms of good teaching quality. There was an interview with the headmaster of the primary school that came bottom of the recently-published league tables, on BBC Radio4. He was rather annoyed that his school has been "named and shamed" like this.
So what if he came bottom? That bears nothing on the teaching ability of the staff. There's plenty of other factors that are considered, such as the funding of the school. Heck, it was a tiny primary school... ***The trick to use with OFSTED is that used by my sister who owns/runs a couple of infant schools/after school care units. Know the OFSTED rules so well that you can pull the inspectors to pieces if they so much as open
I heard that one too. Equally interesting that the head of the top primary said it was nonsense on stilts as well. ***Indeed, We tend to come top in the county and we're dropping the tests. As a private school the reason for taking part is to give a bench-mark against other schools, however jaundice the scheme is, it's all that many parents can use as a barometer. We complain every year in the papers how unfair it is, despite topping out. their mouths - she's even had one sacked! ;-) But then she runs her schools to a much higher standard than OFSTED demand. One is private the other was purpose built for a local council, so she sees both sides although neither are in 'deprived' areas. It is easy to blame the victim though. Many schools come low down on the tables because of low "value added". According to the faceless bureaucrats, a child's score on various tests determines their place in life.It also determines how many GCSEs they get or how high their levels are. ***Yes, it's about time that we started taking the long view in education and prepare people for jobs other than lawyers, chemists, pop-stars and footballers - oh, but that's okay, we can import all the menial workers we need and keep our own kids on social benefit until they die. Problem is that these people who are in an underclass at school become part of the criminal/fraudulent underclass that we spend the rest of our lives paying for and trying to "deal" with. When we should have "dealt" with them years before and helped them to be self-confident, socially aware individuals, with an understanding of their own strengths. If students do not get these results, then the school has not added value so is no good. I agree with you that it stinks. However, it conveniently masks the wider social issues that underpin poor performance from students like where they live and what their parent's do for a living etc. That is costly, blaming and shaming and working teachers like dogs to meet semi-meaningless targets is far cheaper and easier to manage. The only target I have ever set myself in teaching is how many young people I turn into decent adults. I see that as the only meaningful "target". I don't see it on any tables though.
What I like even more is that prior to OFSTED looking around the school, all the teachers are running around like headless chickens, desperately trying to pull the wool over the inspectors' eyes. It's pathetic. OFSTED should just turn up, and look around on a typical day... then see what happens. ***I also have to agree with Adam, there should not be any warning given of inspections since this skews even further in favour of the better off schools who can react to the tip-off, allowing what amounts to social destruction to continue unabated.
Of course, I realise that that is only one facet to the overall metric
Yes, smoke and mirrors is very much the name of the game. In most schools I have worked in the senior management either bully staff to do work for students or physically do it themselves. *** :-) Didn't one of Charlie's boy's have problems because of this - allegedly! I have been to far too many inset days where the focus is the magic "C/D borderline". If you could potentially achieve a grade C if staff dictate a lot to you by forcing you to stay in after school, you're worthy. If you will never get a C, and therefore never affect the league tables, then you can *&%$ off. I think it is sickening. many senior staff I have worked with do not give a damn about how hard little X worked to get their G or E. ***All we are doing is depriving children of their childhood with this obsession for tables. When my son's prep school tried to brow-beat my wife and I into coaching boy for his stats (he was already in the top stream), I told the school that although I didn't agree with homework at his age, we will support them fully in their efforts to educate boy, but I would not be party to pressurising him for the glory of the staff or the school. Even after his sats, they weren't happy with his high score that he obtained off his own back. I remember his teacher telling me that boy was 1 mark short off the next band in his English and she was going to appeal! (not to me!) We all know that when you turn the heat off in the hot-house environment, the blue-greens and the slimes slide back to their natural levels! Let's not burst their bubbles or burn them out before they begin to understand what potential they truly have. This mania is endemic. It always amuses me how the grades are given in reports. (I wrote our reporting system so I see a lot of reports) Wow, boy is truly remarkable, he was only average in political geography for this terms report, for everything else he was way above average - cool! Good boy! But then in the same breath they tell me he likes to chat in class! So is he not being stretched (even in the express maths set) or are the teachers flattering themselves? maybe we need to have insets on statistics and logic? Oh yes, and chalk throwing techniques, I think my boy would chat less if he had to keep a weather eye out for low flying gypsum ;-) Sorry, didn't someone have a puter to rebuild? ;-) that
OFSTED use in determining where on the league table to put the school, but even so, the league table does absolutely nothing in helping anyone determine what the school's ability to _teach_ is like.
As I said above, the league tables I believe are more based on how much higher your students achieve in various metrics than the number crunchers have predicted. The only real value of league tables is as a guide for middle class parents to decide where to buy their new or second home.
-- Thomas Adam