8:00am Friday 22nd January 2010
By Mark Bowen
A headmistress believes state schools are inflating their GCSE results by entering pupils for vocational courses.
Gill Thorne, headmistress of Lucton School, said the league table figures exaggerated the performance of state schools because pupils entered vocational courses counting for more than one GCSE.
“The disadvantage for Lucton compared to local state schools is that we focus on traditional subjects such as separate sciences and languages, which good universities require.
“Almost all state schools boost their number of GCSEs per pupil for the league tables, with vocational ICT courses which are deemed to count as four GCSEs,”
said Mrs Thorne.
“Lucton always has some overseas students, who take all of their exams in a second language and it has an inevitable impact on their achievement levels.
“Then, to add insult to injury, all of their International GCSE passes are not even included in the results,” she said.
■ Justin Stanley, academic deputy head at Hereford Cathedral School, said his school had recorded an official zero per cent score of “good” passes – with English and maths – because pupils sat the International GCSE in English which was not counted in the league tables.
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