CONTROVERSIAL government league tables for the performances of schools in the recent GCSE and GNVQ exams were released last week — but local headteachers warn 'don't read too much into them'.
According to the tables, Devon performances have been improving roughly in line with national expectations since the system was introduced four years ago — this year 49 per cent of youngsters achieved five or more passes at C grade or above — the usual benchmark for comparison.
In Cornwall the results were better at 53 per cent, some four per cent above the national average.
The number of children achieving no passes is also slightly lower in Cornwall at three per cent and four per cent of Devon children failed to get any GCSEs or GNVQs.
Individual schools in the area have produced a variety of performances from Kelly College, a small selective independent school of 347 pupils in Tavistock, which achieved an 86 per cent pass rate in the benchmark category, making it one of the best in the country, to Launceston College, a large comprehensive school, in which 45 per cent of the students achieved five A to C passes in the summer — four per cent below the national average.
For Kelly College, the figure represents a major improvement over last year and headmaster Mark Turner said he was delighted with the performance. However, he added, being a really small school, the statistics could sometimes be misleading — a small number of students representing a higher proportion of the school population than the same number in a bigger school.
Mr Turner said the school did not select on ability, only on the contribution pupils could make to the college.
'For a school with truly mixed intake we are delighted with the results and on that particular criterion we have done very well — the vast majority of pupils are achieving good results,' he said.
Shebbear College, a small independent non-selective school at Beaworthy, has 260 pupils and 66 per cent gained five or more A to C passes, way above the national and county averages.
Headmaster Leslie Clark described that as an 'outstanding achievement', but warned that 'one has to be exceedingly cautious when interpreting statistics'.
The college has a policy of incorporating its high proportion of pupils with special educational needs in main stream education, to the detriment of its statistics, but the benefit of its students.
Tavistock and Okehampton Colleges both achieved 53 per cent, with Callington Community College slightly behind, according to the tables, with 51 per cent. Holsworthy Community College matched the national and county average at 49 per cent.
Steve Kenning, headteacher at Callington, said they were very pleased with the results but felt they didn't really offer a fair picture of the school.
'They are a good indication, but people shouldn't take too much notice of them — they should visit a school to see how good it really is,' he said.
Mr Kenning said, for example, that Callington had 12 students it was felt would do better following other, more vocational courses. If those students had not been included in the GCSE statistics the school figures would have returned 66 per cent instead of 51.
'We will never change that. Rather than pushing them through just for the results table we would far rather put them through individual programmes that will benefit them more,' he said.
Mr Kenning said the quality of education had improved massively in the country over the last couple of years and he predicted that it would continue to do so.
Okehampton principal Philip Herriman said he was absolutely delighted with his school's results, but added that the league tables themselves were 'valueless'. He said results were dependent on the natural ability of the students and good teaching would enable the students to reach their full potential, but you could not expect the impossible.