By Jonathan Williams, Head
In 1992 the government introduced school league tables – and, to their credit, they made a significant shift in the right direction a decade ago.
The key metric to rank secondary schools previously focused on the percentage of A* – C GCSE grades (the equivalent of today’s 9 – 4 grades). In 2016 the government introduced the ‘Progress 8’ measure, prioritising the progress students made rather than their attainment in their comparison of state schools.
However, in 2026 many schools – particularly in the private sector – are woefully behind the curve, still focusing exclusively on attainment measures such as the percentage of 9 – 4 or 9 – 7 GCSE grades. Aside from being misleading as to how the results or schools should be viewed, this focus does damage and disservice to many young people. Therefore, there is a strong, moral mandate to shift reporting and communication to focus on progress rather than attainment.
To illustrate this: take the student who was predicted to earn a Grade 9 in their GCSE Maths, but through arrogance and laziness – or perhaps poor teaching – ‘only’ earned a Grade 7. Now compare to the student whose parents were told their child would never earn a pass, but through hard work and determination exceeded all expectations to earn a Grade 6 – an outstanding result. In the former case, the result is disappointing and may well point to a failing on the part of the student, or possibly teacher and school; in the latter, this student (and likely their teacher) should be celebrated as an example of incredible achievement.
If reporting exam results focus on attainment measures like 9 – 7 GCSE grades, then the school that (possibly quite rightly) proudly reports 50% of all grades earned at this measure is in danger of giving the students above the wrong impression. The student who did incredibly well to pass a GCSE might be made to feel they didn’t quite make the cut of 9 – 7, feeling deflated and devalued as a result.
This issue is by no means limited to schools and reflects wider societal (mis)conceptions regarding ‘success’. For example, some would look at the (BBC) medal table and conclude that Poland, ranked at 44 with 10 medals, had a better 2024 Olympics than St Lucia, ranked at 55 with 2 medals. But those who know their contexts and resources will know that St Lucia were delighted with their best ever Olympics – while Poland were extremely disappointed with their results.
In the same way, school league tables and comparisons that focus exclusively on attainment will inevitably be misleading. In short, families looking at published results could understandably assume that a terrible school is in fact better than an excellent school which has a lower percentage.
So, what is the answer to this issue? I certainly wouldn’t want to pretend it is entirely straightforward – and for those who want to dive deeper or have more knowledge, please read on for some important caveats. However, there are two clear starting points:
- Education – of young people, families, and even schools
- Commitment – to the above, but also changing how we communicate data
Important caveats
- The Progress 8 measure is used for state schools, with a calculation that can easily be found online. However, private schools are not included in this measure or calculation, although some (like Heathfield) are committed to reporting our Valued Added score, which is an equivalent.
- Unfortunately, due to the impact of Covid on collecting Key Stage 2 data, the lack of clarity on starting points means that 2025 and 2026 league tables focus on attainment, though will return to ranking schools by progress from 2027 – which is good news for the likes of Michaela Community School.
- Browsing these league tables make for fascinating reading, but private schools do not fit neatly into them – for example, IGCSEs are not viewed as equivalent to GCSEs, meaning that certain schools rank far lower particularly if core subjects are assessed via IGCSEs rather than GCSEs.
- I would not advocate for dropping all reference to attainment, and I am certainly very proud of Heathfield’s 65% Grade 9 – 7 achievement in 2026. However, I do feel the challenge to move away from this type of headline reporting, given the impact on students mentioned above.
- By virtue of their independence, private schools are not required to report or present their results in the same way. Inevitably, in a competitive market, this leads to many dubious claims. There are various solutions to this, but for me the starting point is the moral mandate to report progress.