Kent secondary school league tables published

Secondary schools in Kent and Medway have had mixed fortunes in league tables published by the Department for Education.

The tables now measure performance on different criteria with classroom standards ranked against new indicators called Progress 8 and Attainment 8 (see below), which are considered a better assessment of the performance of pupils of all abilities.

According to the provisional results, 14 secondary schools in the county were rated as performing “well above average”, with all but three of these being selective grammar schools.

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Kent's best performing schools according to the latest league tables:

At the other end of the scale, 14 secondary schools were rated as “well below” average on Progress 8 but these included six special schools, which would not be expected to do as well as secondary schools.

Schools ranked in this way fall short of what the government expects in terms of standards and could see intervention from Ofsted.

They are:

Kent as a whole was marginally below the national average on Progress 8 with a score of minus 0.11 compared to minus 0.03.

On the number of pupils passing five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C - now replaced by a numerical measure of 4 to 9 - including maths and English, the Kent average was 41.8%, marginally below the national average of 42.2%On the measure of Attainment 8, Kent scored an average of 46 which is in line with the national average.

In Medway, the average Progress 8 score was minus 0.04 compared to the national average of minus 0.03.

Confused? Here is an explanation of how school performance is measured

Progress 8

Progress 8 is considered a better way of assessing performance because it measures how well children of all abilities have done.

It illustrates how well pupils have done and whether they get better or worse grades when compared to similar schools.

Progress 8 is calculated by measuring the performance of children under different categories.

These include how well pupils have done in GCSEs in Maths and English; three qualifications in science; computer science; history, geography and languages in any combination.

The league tables look at the top and bottom performing schools using Perfomance 8 and Attainment 8 to measure them.

The results are compared to the national average of pupils with similar academic starting positions. A school’s Progress 8 score is usually between minus 1 and plus 1.

Plus 1 means that pupils in that school are achieving on average one grade more in each qualification than similar pupils across the country.

Minus 1 means that pupils are achieving one grade less in each qualification.

Schools with a score of minus 0.5 are not achieving the minimum standard the government expects. They could come under increased scrutiny by Ofsted.

Schools with a score of +0.5 are making well above average progress.

Attainment 8

This score measures the achievement of a pupil across eight different subjects.

Pupils are given a score in eight different subjects taken for GCSEs and approved non-GCSEs. These are:

English and maths (which have double weighting);

Three out of sciences, geography, computer sciences and history, which count towards the English Baccalaureate; three more out of the group above, or other approved academic, arts or vocational subjects.