Finding the right school

Treat the league tables with caution, advises Dr Andrew Cunningham, Director of Public Relations at Cranleigh School and Editor of Conference & Common Room

Despite fee increases running at twice the rate of inflation, independent education is booming as never before. At the last count, 7% of all schoolchildren were being educated at independent schools – with parents paying fees of between £4000 and £19,000 for the privilege. Indeed in ‘special case’ areas like London, a staggering one-in-eight of all schoolchildren are now educated privately.

High levels of fees are, understandably, always a sore point for parents, so it is worth reiterating why school fees can seem so excessive. It is quite simple: 70% of all fee income goes straight towards paying staff. And with pay rises for teachers growing in the state sector, the independents must at least match such pay awards to keep pace and attract the kind of committed teachers their schools are famous for. It is also worth pointing out that the facilities at most independents now outstrip anything ever dreamed of even 20 years ago – with indoor sports centres, single study-bedrooms, all-weather pitches, computer suites, state-of-the-art music schools now the rule, rather than the exception. All these new facilities have to be paid for – and the vast majority of independents do not have the wealthy endowments of schools like Christ’s Hospital and Eton.

Ask most people why they choose to make such huge financial sacrifices to fund independent education for their children and the most common answer is invariably ‘smaller class sizes’. In contrast to the 30-plus class sizes common in the state sector, it is almost unheard-of to see independent class sizes rise much above 20. Often they are far lower. The logic of smaller classes makes infallible sense: each teacher has more time to devote to each child.

But there are other important reasons why the independent sector is currently booming. One hugely-underrated factor is the strong ethos of competitive sport that exists at most schools. With school playing-fields still being sold off and a state sector that can, at times, seem hostile to the whole concept of competitive sport, the fact that so many independents stretch their pupils through extensive sports facilities and the competitive fixtures that go with them is an ever-increasing factor in persuading parents to part with such sizeable sums of money.

And of course there is that little matter of ‘better results’. This Autumn, the whole issue of independent school results became even more topical, with news of the top exam board, OCR, deliberately ‘marking down’ students. This has particularly affected the independent sector, which tends to use OCR. League tables of A level and GCSE results were first started by distinguished Daily Telegraph journalist John Clare over a decade ago and, ever since, seem to have caused controversy and consternation. The teaching unions don’t like them because they see them as ‘divisive’; many teachers don’t like them because they feel under undue pressure to perform. Even some leading independents like Marlborough, Dulwich College and King’s, Ely don’t approve of them either.

Why is this? Some parents may wonder why such seemingly simple measures of academic performance cause so much fuss.

The answer, of course, is that league tables provide a very ‘raw’ form of data, which should be treated with some caution. For example, superficially, it might seem sensible to regard schools like Westminster and St Paul’s, which consistently come top of the tables, as the ‘best’ schools around. Yet it is worth bearing in mind that the pupil intake of these schools will almost entirely be composed of extremely bright children in the first place. In other words, runs the argument, schools at the top of the league tables are simply continuing a process of academic distinction that has already been passed to them on a plate. As one distinguished headmaster said to me privately: “If schools like North London Collegiate and Westminster didn’t come top of the league tables, given the high quality of their intake, they really should be shut down.”

So when choosing a school, it is worth remembering that any in the ‘Top 50’ or so will be full of highly-motivated, very bright kids. Does your child fit this particular bill? If so, fine; if not, it might be time to look lower down the tables.

Because another legitimate objection to league tables is the so-called ‘value added’ factor: the fact that such raw results totally ignore the progress a particular child may have made during his/her time at a school. Take the common case of the very average child who arrives as School ‘X’, aged 13, as a low academic achiever. Then, after five years of careful nurturing and painstaking care (the ‘value added’ factor), that child eventually secures three creditable B or C grades at A level. Because such pupils are not ‘A’ grade candidates, their achievements will not be reflected in School X’s position in the league tables, which will usually be a lowly one. Yet many would argue that the school which gains such improvements for its pupils is doing a better job that those which merely bring on the already brilliant.

So parents should be cautious when studying league tables. Yes, by all means, take note of them; often they are the only form of concrete academic data that exists. But be aware that they can hide a multitude of individual success stories by more average children – and that a school near the bottom of the tables, given the lower academic ability of its intake, may not necessarily be doing such a bad job. Quite the reverse, in fact. The happiest, most positive school I ever taught at was Pangbourne College in Berkshire. Yet in 2001, it propped up the Telegraph League Tables in bottom position.

Perhaps the best advice any parent could be given on the perennially-perplexing problem of Which School? is to remember that, rather like their own children, all schools are ‘individual’, differing from each other in ethos and attributes as much as most teenagers. Single-sex or co-ed, day or boarding: schools fit into clear types, but beneath those broad categories lie very different core beliefs. Most comparable schools will boast identically impressive facilities, but parents should try and look beneath that superficially-attractive surface. Gleaming facilities are all very well; more important is the prevailing atmosphere that cannot so easily be created. It may take a few months to build an impressive sports centre; it could take as long as five years to build the happy, friendly atmosphere that is the hall-mark of the truly-successful school.

So when parents and, most importantly of all, their children, visit the half-dozen or so schools on their ‘short-list’ they should focus not necessarily on the glossy prospectus or the brand-new, but rarely-used, technology block or theatre. They should be looking for signs of happy, confident children at ease with themselves and at ease with a staff equally committed to their welfare. Is the school a positive place where their child will be happy and, within his/her unique interests and abilities, stretched and successful?

If the answer to that question is an unqualified ‘yes’, parents may well have found the right school amidst the enormous selection of good schools on these pages.

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