Any School Can Deliver Good Results

The annual chest beating and search for factors 'responsible' for bad examination results 'show' is at a school near you. I have seen many of these shows play themselves out in South Africa. I suppose it's endemic to any country where national examinations are held.

The annual chest beating and search for factors 'responsible' for bad examination results 'show' is at a school near you. I have seen many of these shows play themselves out in South Africa. I suppose it's endemic to any country where national examinations are held.

The UK, however, has two sets of school results to contend with. The first results, last week, were for the A-levels which re-opened the debate on the merits of private schools and selective schools. These were followed by the GCSE results this week which bring about an entirely different debate again.

As part of the show for the drama on A-levels, the top schools are listed, whether they are the best-performing comprehensive, best-performing sixth-form colleges or the best-performing grammar schools. Of course it is also a fine time for politicians to stir the pot and suggest all sorts of solutions in the hope of scoring some brownie points. Education is a sensitive subject.

What is the concern then? It really comes down to the fact that private and selective schools produce better results than comprehensive schools. The academically high achievers attend these schools, whereas the lesser talented young people are achieving poor results in second-rate schools. If everybody could attend the 'good' schools then the scores on A levels would be higher. That is the perception and certainly the results seem to indicate there is truth in this statement.

Living in Brighton in the UK, the debate has been around the idea of busing pupils to schools. The popular schools are over subscribed. The city and county do not want to extend the facilities at these schools, especially as the facilities at lesser popular schools are underutilized.

In order to determine who goes where, the education authority wants to introduce a lottery system whereby the luck of the draw would determine where ones child went to school. This could mean that the pupil, who could have walked to school, would end up being bused to school every day. As one can imagine, there is some opposition to these suggestions.

Then there are examination results that throw a spanner in the works of all the theories. The results put into question the thinking that private and selective schools are the only answer to ensuring pupils deliver top performance.

A comprehensive school at Cheltenham, Balcarras Comprehensive, achieved a highest-ever A-level point score for its pupils. The school's score represented an average of close on three grade A passes per pupil. The school's sixth form is barely ten years old. The pupils deliver results that open up entry to top notch Universities for them.

The entire debate reminds me of business. There are some companies that make it big, and there are many many that never show much growth or even die after a few years. What does this have to do with education, one could wonder. It boils down to one thing, leadership. I don't mind if I am the only one who has that opinion!

The leadership in schools, represented by head teachers and staff, determines how well the school does. I don't think it has much to do with where the school is situated and its pupil make up. The recent examination results do not prove anything other than that the present system works and it doesn't. Stats can be used to prove anything.

I went to a school in the middle of a farming region in South Africa. The pupils came from a variety of backgrounds, the common denominator being that German was spoken outside of formal lessons. German speaking parents sent their kids to ensure that their 'mother tongue' language skills were not lost.

As an aside, an afterthought so to speak, this school had a tradition of producing some of the best end of school results in the national examinations. Our class was told that we were one of the brightest the school ever had. In retrospect, I would imagine every class was told that. We worked towards ensuring that the belief in us was justified. I did a count some years after school that out of the 33 pupils in my class, 27 got University degrees. Did I mention that we went to school barefoot?

One may look at this example and deduce that one exception such as my school, or the comprehensive in Cheltenham, is the exception that makes up the rule. I disagree. The head teacher at my school, ensured his staff believed that the school produced excellent even exceptional results. And the teachers instilled this belief in the pupils. And the pupils rose to the occasion.

By branding some schools as inferior, pupils already anticipate that they will score less well in national examinations. And they deliver to that perception, even if they could have done so much better. It's all in the leadership. An inspirational head teacher can lead a school to outstanding results, no matter what the perceived disadvantages, such as location, racial mix of pupils, unemployment of parents etc may be.

Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK, having moved across from South Africa just over a year ago. One of her pet peeves is the war in Iraq and in fact anything that causes innocent people to get hurt. But she also loves tech stuff, although only as an amateur. She considers herself a Silver Surfer Gadget Geek.

Her musings may be found on http://www.anjamerret.com. Her observations on personal power and self-development may be found on http://www.pinkblocks.com.