Catholic schools ditch ‘unfair’ league tables

CATHOLIC teachers have criticised academically ranked league tables, claiming they fail to represent the good work that faith schools do with children from less privileged backgrounds.

This year just one Catholic school made it into the top 100 best-performing secondary schools at GCSE level for 2015.

St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School in Finchley, London, is listed at 41 in the school performance tables at GCSE level, published by the Department for Education last week. Only nine Catholic Schools have made the top 200.
A spokesperson for the Catholic Education Service (CES) said the league tables, dominated by academically selective and independent schools, ignore Catholic schools’ achievements.

Julian Ward, headmaster of St Michael’s, said that despite being proud of his school’s success he had “mixed emotions” as to the relevance of the league tables.

“The present league tables are about measuring a certain type of academic excellence,” he explained. “They cannot be seen as an objective measure of the achievements of all pupils in all schools. When it comes to Catholic education I think the emphasis is on personal progress and preparation for the future. I think it’s important that we find a way to provide a true comparison.”

Prior Park College, an independent Catholic school in Bath, has said it is removing itself from the league tables. Headmaster James Murphy-O’Connor said their value was questionable when so often statistics are not fully inclusive of all data, such as other qualifications such as the IGCSE, the international equivalent of GCSE.

According to the CES, Catholic schools continue to outperform the national average for the SATs in English and Maths taken at ages seven, 11 and 14, and at GCSE by 6 and 5 per cent respectively. This is despite the fact that more than 17 per cent of pupils in Catholic secondary schools come from the poorest homes, 5 per cent higher than the national average.

In an alternative GCSE league table, published by Schools Week, analysing the achievements of schools with pupils from low-income backgrounds at GCSE level, Catholic schools feature prominently. Two, Gunnersbury Catholic School in west London and La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School in south London, are listed in the top 10.