Performance Tables Don't Tell The Full Story

The Government has published its annual performance tables. We were delighted that Newcastle School for Boys was shown as the top school in Newcastle when it came to A level performance in 2017.

It told us what we already knew from our own measures and monitoring of our sixth formers’ progress. They make excellent – ‘well above average’ is the Government’s phrase – progress during their A levels. This places Newcastle School for Boys in the top 5% of schools and colleges in the UK.

The progress of each of our individual students is closely monitored during their two years of sixth form study. As a smaller school, we are able to intervene quickly where students are not making expected progress. Equally, individual classes and subject area performance are also carefully tracked.

It may have surprised some to see Newcastle School for Boys at the top of the city’s A level performance table. Other measures which rank schools solely in terms of grades achieved take no account of students’ starting points nor the progress they make. Data and tables based solely on attainment tend to favour schools that are more selective. For us, it was a pleasing external validation of what we already knew to be true about the effectiveness of the teaching and learning our sixth form boys experience.

However, the tables say nothing of our students’ many other achievements and successes. We are just as proud of the young men of excellent character our school aims to turn out and their achievements outside of the classroom as we are of their academic progress.

We are particularly pleased to have achieved this recognition at an exciting time of growth for our sixth form following the creation of a brand new Sixth Form centre last September and an increasing demand for places.