Plymouth College once again topped the league tables in Plymouth and the surrounding area with an increased value added score of 0.34.
Headmaster, Jonathan Standen explains; "We were delighted to see how well the school has performed in the DfE League Tables, which were published yesterday. Our A level results were excellent both in terms of actual grades awarded and also “value added.” With an average overall VI form grade of B- and a value added score of + 0.34 we were the best school in Plymouth once again. One of the grammar schools also recorded an average grade of B-, but its value added was -0.1 Our actual grades and our value added were far stronger than any of the other schools in the city, whether selective or non-selective. When you consider that Plymouth College is not academically selective, it is a hugely impressive feat for us to record the best grades in a city with three selective schools. The value added score illustrates the very high standard of teaching and learning at Plymouth College, and places us in the top three schools (Independent and State) in Devon and Cornwall for the second successive year. You may be interested to note that our two closest Independent competitors came nowhere close to our level of achievement. The average grade at Mount Kelly was a C, with a value added of -0.11, and at Stover this was a C- with a value added of -0.21. I would like to warmly congratulate our students and their teachers. The GCSE league tables record only approved GCSEs. They do not record the iGCSEs that we take at Plymouth College. Therefore they are inaccurate. I round this section off with my usual thought about school league tables. They are important because every school, state or independent, has to demonstrate that it is adding value in the classroom, and because grades lead to places at university. However school league tables take no account of our holistic education, and the broader value that Independent Schools add with character development, resilience and so forth, the skills and qualities which mean that independently educated students fly further and faster in life beyond the school gates than their peers educated elsewhere."
