Yorkshire headteacher warns schools will be 'thrown to the wolves' over government decision to publish post pandemic performance tables

The annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) takes place in Birmingham today and president, Pepe Di’Iasio, is expected to say that the Government must rethink its decision to publish key stage 4 and post-16 performance tables based on this summer’s GCSE and A-level results.

More than 1,000 delegates are due to attend at the International Convention Centre and Mr Di’Iasio, head at Wales High School in Kiveton Park near Rotherham, is expected to ask: “How can it be right to compare the performance of one school or college with another when they have been so differently affected by the pandemic over the last two years?

“The Government’s answer is to say that it will place a health warning on performance tables and advise caution when considering the data. Surely, if the data is unreliable, the obvious answer is not to publish it in the first place.

“This is not a small matter. Careers and reputations are affected by performance tables. It feels as though we are being thrown to the wolves by the Government’s insistence on going ahead with this misguided and counterproductive policy. That is a pretty terrible way to treat a profession which surely deserves more respect after the last two years.”

An ASCL survey of 1,400 schools teaching GCSEs showed that more than 80 per cent disagreed with the publication of performance tables this year, while just over 10 per cent were in agreement. Eighty per cent of schools offering A-levels disagreed with publishing league tables this year based on the summer exams.

Reasons included how schools had been impacted by the pandemic in different ways, with huge variations in staff and pupil absence. Schools with a higher proportion of poorer pupils were disproportionately impacted.

The DfE has said: “We recognise the uneven impact on schools and colleges of the pandemic and will ensure clear messages are placed on the performance tables to advise caution when drawing conclusions from the 2021 to 2022 data.”

It comes as MPs on the cross-party Education Select Committee say the Government’s multi-million pound catch up programme risks failing pupils who need it the most, leaving them facing an “epidemic of educational inequality” as disadvantaged pupils could be eight months behind.

The report, released last night, finds that partner Randstad is not delivering on its targets, and called on the Government to prove the National Tutoring Programme’s efficacy, or terminate the contract.

Several regional disparities were also noted as by the second half of the Autumn term 2020, the average learning loss for maths for primary pupils was more than five months in Yorkshire and the Humber compared with a fortnight in the South-West. By March 2021, the National Tutoring Programme had reached 100 per cent of its target numbers of schools in the South-West, but just 58.8 per cent in the North-East.