Provisional 2016 GCSE results for Medway

 NOTES: Parts of the media, including the BBC, have not covered this story at the time this article was published. This may be because they are waiting for government to provide downloadable tables to enable them more  easily carry out the analysis I have completed below. However, KentOnline has published a full Kent and Medway league table. These results are provisional and last year a number of schools saw a small improvement in results in the final version to be published  in December.

This year the long established 5 A*-C GCSE league table including English and maths has been scrapped, being replaced by two new assessments, Progress 8 and Attainment 8. Both these are measured by an arcane formula combining results in eight curriculum subjects to produce numbers whose meaning and spread is very difficult to comprehend, but enable schools to be placed in an order. The key measure is Progress 8 (full table here) which looks at progress from the end of primary school to the end of Year 11, comparing pupils to others nationally, who begin from the same starting point, with Medway above average at 0.05, against a National average of -0.03.

 Attainment 8 (full table here) simply measures what it says, with Medway exactly matching the National average of 49.8., although there is a variety of other statistics to choose from to suit your case.

These Provisional results are issued at this time to enable families to be better informed when making secondary school choices. Unfortunately, there has been such little publicity given to them that most families are not even aware of their existence.   

Further information below, including the performance of individual schools, and a look at another measure, the English Baccalaureate ......

The key measure is Progress 8 (full table here) which looks at progress from the end of primary school to the end of Year 11, comparing pupils to others nationally, who begin from the same starting point, with Medway above average at 0.05, against a National average of -0.03. There is a single floor standard which schools are expected to achieve, which turns out to be -0.5, and all secondary schools exceed this. Highest rated school by this measures is Rochester Grammar, followed by non-selective Thomas Aveling and Brompton Academy.

The table is led by Rochester Grammar, the only Medway school to score 'Well above Average' for progress from Key Stage 2 to GCSE.