The Headmaster of The John Lyon School in Harrow today added his voice to national calls to make the Government’s school GCSE league tables fairer by ending a rule which discriminates against independent schools.

At present, the Government excludes the results of International GCSEs (IGCSE) from its league tables, even though these respected qualifications are taken in core subjects by pupils at many of the top independent schools.

As a result, academically high-achieving schools such as The John Lyon School (JLS) - where boys sit IGCSE Maths - languish near the bottom of key tables that recognise the number of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs grades A*-C including Maths and English.

Headmaster Kevin Riley said: “It really is a nonsense that according to the Government tables we are among the worst-performing schools in the country at GCSE, when in reality all 100 boys who took GCSEs last summer achieved at least five A*-C grades in GCSEs including Maths and English – a 100% success rate that would be the envy of almost any state school. I would like to support the Independent Schools Council’s call today for the Government to include IGCSE results in the league tables. If Ministers refuse and instead continue to play games with statistics - as they did recently with figures on knife crime, for example - the league tables will lose any shred of credibility they still have.”

Mr Riley added: “IGCSEs are widely recognised as being at least as demanding as other GCSEs. Indeed most would say that their greater emphasis on examination performance rather than coursework makes them more rigorous, which is why schools such as JLS have adopted them.”

He also pointed out that JLS did not perform well simply because it ‘creamed off’ the brightest pupils – an accusation sometimes levelled against selective independent schools. The Government figures released yesterday reveal JLS achieved a ‘value-added’ score of 1,016.8 for helping boys improve between Key Stage 4 and 5 beyond what would be expected of pupils of their ability in a typical school. Any figure above 1,000 is considered good.

ENDS

Issued on behalf of The John Lyon School

MEDIA CONTACTS: Mr Kevin Riley on 020 8872 8400