Choosing a school for your child has become somewhat of a mystic art. Do you remain true to the methods of old and visit the school to get a feel for the atmosphere and the way it operates and talk to other local parents with children already at the school. Or, do you put complete faith in Government school league tables to make your decision I think not?

Since their introduction in 1992, by John Mayor’s Conservative Government as part of the Citizens Charter, school league tables have been heralded as the benchmark for parental choice in education. Choice continues to be a myth perpetuated by successive Secretaries of State for Education, real choice has yet to be realised. League tables were introduced to help parents decide which school they would like their children to attend. However, there is increasing evidence that league tables mislead rather than assist parents.

In theory, league tables provide figures for the standards achieved at any given school. This list then provides for schools to be compared and rated against other local schools. However, in practice understanding the real value of the figures causes parents to feel confused rather than informed.

Since their introduction, the tables have been accused of providing an inaccurate measure of school success. In particular, they have been criticised for focusing too much on exam results and not enough on extra curricula activities and other strengths.

The danger is; do parents understand the tables and how they are collated when so many issues cloud the results? The greatest being the introduction, by Government, in more recent years of an additional numerical element to the tables known, to those in the know, as ‘contextual value added’ (CVA).

To the uninitiated, in its simplest definition, CVA allows schools extra league table points if they are within communities where a high percentage of the children are entitled to free school meals or in areas of deprivation. However, it is extremely unlikely that many of the parents living in such areas understand what these bonus points mean. Meaning that the chance of parents ever reading the true picture from the tables has disappeared further over the horizon.

All too frequently surveys show that parents feel that school league tables have little or no value and that parents are more influenced by written and verbal teacher feedback than league tables. If judged so lowly how can league tables ever really help parents to make a choice about which school is best for their child? Regardless of whether this selection is a real chance to choose or merely an opportunity to indicate a range of schools that, as a parent, you would prefer for your child.

It would be churlish to suggest than some parents do not view league tables when looking to select a school they would wish their children to attend, of course they do; and are actively encouraged to do so by Government.
There are so many parts that make up a good school; things league tables never show. If asked, parents would seek a place where their child would be happy and well cared for with good moral and social teaching, a rounded holistic education, high standards of behavior, good teacher role models, well-appointed buildings and good resources. Clearly illustrating that educational standards, although undeniably important are part of a list of other issues of equal significance.

No matter how academically good a school appears in the local league tables it will not be looked on favourably if the message from other local parents is that behavior at the school is poor or that children are put under such extreme pressure to achieve in those subjects, which make up the tables.

Parents can seen the problems caused by the lack of physical education for children and have had to watch as home economics has become food technology with children having to design packaging for a packet of biscuits rather than learn to make the biscuits themselves. With a school able to shift the subjects taught to help provide the necessary points to achieve a highly sought after higher place in the league tables, we cannot understand why children do not know the countries of the world as geography is squeezed out, and so it goes on. You can’t help but feel that in the name of league tables our school curriculum has been sabotaged.

Parents have, for years, had their own mechanism of school selection, although realistically a system offering either a secondary or grammar school education may not have been ideal neither is a system which is so confusing that parents would struggle to know what the data they are reading means.

Parents do not want their children to be taught to pass assessment tests they want to be reassured that their children will succeed as a direct result of high quality teaching at the right level for their child. And that if their child needs extra support in a particular subject that it will be provided with the full support of the parents.

They want reports that are personal to the child not from a computer bank and they need to know both at local and national level how others are achieving to help keep a balance on standards.
Give parents credit for wanting the best for their child and being able to make an informed decision. Just don’t try to cloud the decision with a complex set of facts and figures called league tables that can change in a year and have very little practical use to parents.

I would suggest many parents are now totally confused as to how cancan be we deemed by League Tables as failing, parents can see with there own eyes this is nonsense I would suggest league tables are useful to few but politicians.GCSE league tables:
Dorset Echo
Thursday 26th January 2012 in

By Martin Lea »

As secondary school headteachers sift through the data for the key stage four performance tables the Echo can reveal there is a mixed bag of results for Dorset schools including some local institutions seeing their results slip from last year.

On average 59.5 per cent of pupils at schools in the county achieved at least five A* to C grades or equivalent including English and maths.

Education chiefs praised Dorset students.

John England, head of learning and school improvement at Dorset County Council, said: “We are very pleased in Dorset to see that res-ults have shown improvement on last year, above the national average.

However, education campaigner Margaret Morrissey of Dorchester, who leads the Parents Outloud group, has been calling for league tables to be scrapped since they were introduced.

She said: “I said at the time they were brought in that we’re dealing with children not footballers.

“They’re a complete and utter waste of time.”

TEACHER’S UNION HAS ‘SUSPICIONS’
Geoff Cooke, secretary of the National Union of Teachers in Dorset, said the union still had its ‘suspicions’ on league tables because they ‘do not present a true picture of what a school can offer.’ The union is also concerned about the new English Baccalaureate classification.