School tables

[Mailman]

What an absolute joke these tables are!

Everyone knows, except for the Government, that these tables are used by parents to pick the best schools from the bunch. Yet just because a school does well or not well isnt an accurate indicator of how good that school is.

As an example. The school down the road from where I live came bottom of the table for its area YET that school is actually one of the best schools in London.

The fact that the particular year being tested is "dumb" isnt the schools fault...more the fault of the dumb parents who had dumb kids!

You can see how ingrained this system is with the English. I was talking to one of the board of trustee members and telling her that sats results should be confidential and only used by the government to identify schools that need more government assistance with its teaching standards. She looked at me as if I was crazy! "But how would we tell where the good schools are" she asked me, to which I replied "well, school tables certainly wont tell you that!"

Actually, this all really just harks back to the English requirement to class everything!

Mailman

 

[Gibbon]

I had a really good table at school. Lucy Donaldson was really pretty.

 

[The Master]

I was the first in my cosmic science class to master (ho-ho) the eight times table.

 

[NoddY]

School league tables might be useful to some parents, especially those who have not been in education for a while, don't mix in middle class circles or have recently moved into an area. The tables are acurate in that they highlight 'the extremes': highly performing schools and sink schools. They are not good at differentiating middling schools; schools with GCSE A-C 80% or more are good schools, and those <30% are sink schools - however the majority of institutions are in between.

What makes a 'good' school in a wider sense is quite a complex concept. However, our current culture is not sophisticated enough to measure anything other than quantitavely.

 

[milanbenes]

school tables go for good money these days at the antiques auctions

you'd be surprised

Milan.

 

[The Master]

school tables go for good money these days at the antiques auctions

Hmmmm, that might make a good plan b, eh Milan?

 

[PRC1964]

Our local school has only around 250 kids. Comparing it to a school that has that many in each year is pointless.

 

[milanbenes]

yes Maestro,

could be.

Keep it quiet though.

Milan.

 

[The Master]

yes Maestro,

could be.

Keep it quiet though.

Don't worry, Milan, mum's the word. There's room for both of us in the second hand school furniture market.

I've heard there's a guy with a shop in Bracknell who might be in the market for some if the price is right and the brass inkwell covers are still in place.

 

[MrsGoof]

Went to parents evening recently, those tables in the nurserry class are really tiny.