Mr Kevin Riley, Headmaster of The John Lyon School in Harrow, said today that a Government change to the annual school league tables had rendered this year’s tables “virtually meaningless”.

The change in the way GCSE performance is measured has sent leading independent schools, including The John Lyon School (JLS), from the top of last year’s GCSE tables to the bottom of the new tables for 2006 published last week. Yet the new A level tables show that JLS performed better than any state school in Harrow.

“I have always had reservations about league tables, because they are such crude measurements of a school’s performance, but this latest change means the GCSE tables are no longer merely crude; they are virtually meaningless,” said Mr Riley.

Many leading independent schools, including The John Lyon School, enter their pupils for International GCSEs (IGCSEs) in English and/or maths. But those are not approved for use in state schools - and they are not taken into account in the Government's performance tables.

In previous years, when the benchmark used in the league tables was any five good GCSEs (or their vocational equivalents), this did not matter - because those independent schools were usually entering pupils for many more than five GCSEs.
But now that the benchmark requires English and maths GCSEs, the league tables appear to show that these schools are among the worst-performing in the country.

The John Lyon School, for example, has seen its figure slump from 98% in 2005 to just 2% for 2006, while its famous sister school, Harrow, has experienced a fall from 99% to 0%. An independent Harrow girls’ school, North London Collegiate School, is just as badly affected, with its figures dropping from 100% for 2005 to 0% for 2006. All three have pupils who sit IGCSEs in English and /or maths.

“According to the league tables, the academic performance of The John Lyon School and Harrow School has plummeted to such an extent that our pupils are doing considerably worse at GCSE than even the worst-performing state school in Harrow! It’s a completely ludicrous situation that can only bring league tables further into disrepute,” said Mr Riley.

“What is particularly ironic is that I think insisting that English and maths should be among the benchmark five GCSE subjects was the right move: too many schools had been boosting their figures by encouraging pupils to take vocational qualifications based almost entirely on coursework.

“But refusing to include IGCSEs in the league tables was a ridiculous decision: these qualifications are based on examination performance, not coursework, and are widely acknowledged to be more difficult than the equivalent maths and English GCSEs.”

“I would urge the Government to reconsider this decision,” Mr Riley concluded.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of The John lyon School by Edge Media

MEDIA CONTACTS: Kevin Riley, Headmaster, on 020 8872 8434, or Paul Herbert at Edge Media on 01453 842020