As the league tables are published,
it is with a great deal of gratification that we celebrate
the 100% five grades A* - C achieved by last year’s
Year 11. However, the science department has suffered because
DCSF has decided that all pupils should have an equal weighting
of biology, chemistry and physics to the end of Key Stage
4 (Year 11).
At HGS we believe that teaching the sciences separately is
the best grounding for those who wish to continue science
studies at ‘A’ level and this has been confirmed
by our local sixth-form colleges. We also believe that our
system allows all students greater freedom of choice. Despite
the fact that the science results were 100% A*-C, they will
show at only 63% in the tables. Last year 63% of students
did all three sciences and all achieved grades A*-C, so they
count; those who did either one or two sciences do not count
for anything!
So, on the one hand we celebrate our achievements, whilst
on the other we resent the distortion caused by statistical
analysis. As Chris Woodhead says: ‘In principle, league
tables provide parents with vital information about the performance
of the schools that their children attend or might attend.
In practice, they can be very misleading. Huddersfield Grammar
School achieves outstanding results in science at GCSE. No
parent would realise this from the league tables as published
– this is plain wrong!’
