Posted on 09/04/2009 8:21:46 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
About two thirds of GCSE exams taken at independent schools this year gained at least an A grade, compared with only one in five in the state sector.
The increase in the proportion of top marks at private schools comes as a growing number of independent head teachers abandon GCSEs in favour of more rigorous exams, casting doubt on their usefulness.
Westminster School, London, which leads this year’s independent schools table with 98.1 per cent of all grades at either A or A*, will offer ten subjects as International GCSEs (IGCSE) in the next academic year.
“Pupils taking more rigorous IGCSE exams have found them more intellectually stimulating and enjoyable, so they do even better in them [than in GCSEs]” said Stephen Spurr, the headmaster of Westminster.
The IGCSE contains no coursework element and is similar to a traditional O level. It is favoured by all of this year’s Top Ten independent schools but is still not recognised by the Government. Dr Spurr said the GCSE syllabus for some subjects, particularly science, is not challenging enough for pupils at the £19,000-a-year school.
“We want them to have reached a level of scientific understanding which is going to help them make informed scientific decisions in the future, even if they are not taking it at A level,” he said. “The GCSE doesn’t allow for that — for the academic level of pupils at Westminster it is too low.”
At St Paul’s Girls’ School, also in London, which heads the independent girls table with 97.3 per cent at A or A*, only maths is offered as an IGCSE. But Clarissa Farr, the school’s High Mistress, said that the school was planning a review of education for 14 to 16-year-olds this year. “We want to be sure that the curriculum provides sufficient challenge
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I don’t doubt that the typical private school can make more of a given kid than the typical public school (”public” in the US sense, not the British), but the bulk of this difference surely is that the populations in British Independent (private) schools are very different from those in state (public) schools. We see that phenomenon here in the US.
Private schools just get a larger proportion of inherently smarter kids.
A*? What do search algorithms have to do with it?
I lol’d
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