Secondary school league tables published today have revealed Merton’s top performing schools.

Kings College was ranked number two in the country for AS and A level results, while Wimbledon High School was placed in the top 200 for A level results with 27 per cent of pupils achieving at least AAB.

The best performing schools for GCSE results were again Kings’s College and Wimbledon High School where 99 per cent of pupils achieved five or more A* to C grades putting both in the top 200 performing schools in the country.

Ursuline High School in Wimbledon followed with 84 per cent of pupils achieving good GCSE’s, Rutlish School with 74 per cent and Harris Academy in Merton with 62 per cent.

The most improved school was St Mark’s Academy in Mitcham whose results rose from 43 percent last year to 54 per cent this year.

Wimbledon College saw the biggest drop in results from 76 per cent last year to 57 per cent this year.

While Raynes Park High was the lowest performing school with 44 per cent of pupils achieving five GCSE grades from A* to C, dropping from 56 per cent last year.   

The results were released by the Department for Education.


GCSE results

This table ranks Merton’s schools by how many students got at least five GCSEs with at least a C grade in August 2012, the standard benchmark against which schools exams’ results are judged.

Joint top of the tree are the fee paying single-sex schools, King’s College and Wimbledon High School, as well as and catholic girls comprehensive Ursuline High School. But mixed-sex comprehensives Bishopsford in Morden and Raynes Park High School prop up the bottom.

The marking of English GCSE results came under intense controversy last summer after it emerged Ofqual, the exams regulator, had ordered examiners to mark down papers in order to curb grade inflation.

As we reported in September, Raynes Park High School were understood to have 60 students who would have got a C grade if the intervention had not happened. Wimbledon College were also reported to be disproportionately affected.

A judicial review, supported by Merton Council, is expected to announce a decision next week on whether the Ofqual acted properly.

After failing its Ofsted inspection last year, Bishopsford was taken over by the Harris Federation of academy schools, and opened in September 2012 as Harris Academy Morden.

Five good GCSEs (%)

  1. King's College School (boys, independent) - 99
  2. Wimbledon High School (girls, independent) - 99
  3. Usuline High School (girls, state) - 99
  4. Rutlish School (boys, state) - 74
  5. Harris Academy Merton (mixed, academy) - 62
  6. Ricards Lodge High School (girls, state) - 59
  7. Wimbledon College (boys, state) - 57
  8. St Mark's CoE (boys, academy) - 54
  9. Bishopsford Arts College (mixed, state) - 47
  10. Raynes Park High School (mixed, state) - 44

 


English baccalaureate

This table ranks the schools by how well schools did in the English baccalaureate, the Government’s new standard by which to measure GCSE results.

The e-bacc score is the percentage pupils who got at least a C in their GCSE in maths, English, two science subjects, a language and either history or geography. Critics of the measure, proposed by education secretary Michael Gove, complain it gives no weight to creative subjects.

Again the independent schools come out on top, while half of Merton’s state schools did not achieve more than 10 per cent.

E-bacc score (%)

  1. Wimbledon High School - 81
  2. King's College School - 66
  3. Ursuline High School - 38
  4. Wimbledon College - 22
  5. Ricards Lodge High School - 18
  6. Raynes Park High School - 15
  7. Rutlish School - 10
  8. St Mark's CoE - 5
  9. Harris Academy Merton - 1
  10. Bishopsford Arts College - 0

 


A level/AS level points per pupil

This measure is the school’s average number of A level or AS level points per pupil. A levels, which are taken over two years, as twice as many points as AS levels, which are taken over one year.

A pupil’s A level points are calculated as follows:

A grade = 270 points, B = 240, C = 210, D = 180, E = 150.

AS level grades are worth half (A is 135, B is 120 etc).

For example, if a pupils gets ABC grades at A level, and a D at AS level. Their points total would be 270+240+210+90= 810

That means the average King’s College School student got the equivalent of 5As at A-level!

  1. King's College School - 1349
  2. Wimbledon High School - 992.7
  3. Ursuline High School - 769.2
  4. Wimbledon College - 743.9
  5. Rutlish School - 599.3
  6. Rutlish/Ricards Lodge combined 6th form - 579.9
  7. Ricards Lodge High School - 558.3