EDUCATION ADVISERS LTD

info@educationadvisers.co.uk   phone +44 (0) 1622 813870

League Tables

Celebrating Academic Achievement

For many years, Education Advisers has produced league tables by exam results for UK private schools. Schools in our league tables are presented each year with certificates and the top schools each year receive unique Crystal Awards. You will often come across these on display at schools across the UK.

Accurate and Comprehensive League Tables

Education Advisers’ League Tables are compiled from the exam results of students in UK private schools and colleges. We go to great lengths to ensure that we collate results from as many schools as possible and these are carefully checked before publication of our tables. All our League Tables are based on clear, fair and easily measurable criteria making them uniquely straightforward and user-friendly.

Our league tables have become very well-known and are relied on by many parents, schools and education professionals in the UK and internationally.

You will often see other tables in national newspapers and on the BBC website, as well as the ‘official’ tables put out by the government, but these are often incorrect or incomplete.

What makes our League Tables uniquely comprehensive and accurate and therefore of practical use?

  1. Most other tables are produced in early September shortly after the Independent Schools Council issues its Press Release – BUT there are 60 + major senior schools who do not publish their results. So these tables are rather flawed when so many top schools are missing. The Government statistics are generally published in January, but even these miss out some schools and do not count certain curriculums logically.
  2. Many League Tables combine results for different curriculums, particularly the IB and A Levels. We refuse to do this because we believe the conversion formula used by UCAS does not fairly reflect students’ performance in the different exams. Indeed top universities tend not to use it. You often find that IB schools have an over inflated position in such tables.
  3. We segregate results by category of school, rather than just publish one combined table. Why? Because most parents know whether they want day or boarding, IB or A Levels, English or Scottish and single sex or co-educational etc.
  4. We typically publish 3 months later than other tables to ensure we get results from as many schools as possible, adjusted after remarks.
  5. We insist on minimum criteria for each category of school. For example, only schools with a minimum of 20% full boarders or at least 50 boarding pupils are included in the boarding school tables. We also stipulate a minimum examination cohort size of at least 20 pupils for a school to be included in any table.

League Tables

Our tables are published on the following websites:-

The Value and Limitations of League Tables

When it comes to selecting the best school for a child, league tables do not tell the whole story about a school. Those schools near the top of each table are generally extremely selective on admissions and can sometimes reject more than 75% of applicants. Additionally an academic hothouse is not necessarily the right environment for many children. League Tables are, however a very useful indication of a school’s academic standing. We strongly believe that any parent is entitled to know how a school is performing. Indeed a huge percentage of parents using our websites arrive because they want to find out which are the top academic schools in the UK.  Parents need to bear in mind that schools lower down the tables may provide an equally exceptional education but cater for a wider ability range.

We are always happy to advise parents on the best schools to target for their children and may be contacted on +44 1622 813870 or by completing an Enquiry Form.

For further information please contact us. We welcome any discussion on our league tables.