League tables aside

Alex Peterken, Headmaster of Cheltenham College

It would be pretty unusual if parents did not take a keen interest in how successful a prospective school was and how much their son or daughter might be expected to achieve in that specific learning environment, but it’s not always easy to get a clear picture of success by looking at measurable information such as league tables alone. This can be a particular problem in boarding schools, where the range and breadth of the opportunities provided for pupils means ‘success’ is achieved in a myriad of different contexts that are difficult to quantify. Boarding schools rightly have a broad definition of what constitutes success that goes beyond just performance in public examinations. This is not to say that exam results do not matter, in fact they are at the heart of what we work towards for the large part of every day, but parents are becoming increasingly sophisticated in understanding the raw data provided by league tables, understanding context, and also looking more widely at other signs of success. So what should parents look out for?

At GCSE, the first formal stage in the public examination process, independent schools are increasingly turning away from GCSE to alternatives such as the International GCSE (iGCSE) because they are concerned to ensure that their pupils are well prepared to pursue subjects at sixth-form level and at university. Successive revisions of some GCSE syllabuses have seen them increasingly emptied of knowledge and understanding, with a superficial appreciation of concepts replacing the more detailed study of facts and underlying principles. The attractiveness of the iGCSE is that it holds fast to the idea that studying a subject demands depth as well as breadth.

At Cheltenham College, we offer the iGCSE in mathematics, English literature, science, history and geography, and have found that pupils enjoy and benefit from the richer and more substantial content and learning to apply principles in unfamiliar circumstances, which develops pupils’ analytical and critical thinking skills. As a consequence, when they enter the sixth form and go on to university, where they are required to understand and engage more deeply with their chosen subjects, they are in a much stronger position. At present, iGCSE results are not included in school league tables, which means that schools where pupils sit them have their placing artificially deflated.

League tables also miss the point about many of the things that should make education the greatest time of young people’s lives. To succeed in adult life involves much more than simply being proficient in the classroom. A good school sets about educating the whole person, and any measure of success should take account of the opportunities pupils have to grow as individuals. Excellent teaching and learning are crucial, but schools should also be places where pupils develop knowledge and understanding, where they are given the opportunity and encouragement to find and use their latent talents, where their self-esteem is built up and their confidence grows, and where they learn to be generous-hearted and to have an enquiring mind. In recent months I have seen a team of 16 prefects, unprompted, plan and execute a charity run that raised in excess of £5,000 by running a non-stop relay for 24 hours around the school grounds (including the hire of a charity catsuit for me to wear while running the first lap!). I’ve also seen a Year 10 girl have a dialogue with a Jewish rabbi in the synagogue about his ancestors and the Holocaust, and heard a Year 12 pupil deliver a paper on legalising euthanasia, in front of an audience of parents and a professor of ethics. Next term we will be launching the first ever externally accredited course in leadership and life skills. How do you measure those sorts of successes? Certainly not with league tables.

In boarding schools, learning in this broad sense does not end with the completion of formal lessons. Lunchtimes, evenings and weekends are filled with activities – ranging from academic societies and hobbies, and wider interest clubs, to sports and leisure activities – all of which contribute to an immensely stimulating and varied education. It is this that really enables pupils to grow into accomplished, self-confident and well-rounded individuals – I’m not sure the Cheltonian who finished last term presenting to a conference at Manchester University about the college’s bio-diesel ‘eco scheme’ (made from discarded cooking oil) really thought he could do it until it was all over!

Most boarding schools have well-developed house and tutorial structures, too, which means that the support to foster success is always close to hand; at Cheltenham, academic ‘clinics’ are open outside classroom hours, and tutors spend time with their tutees offering support and advice about any and every issue. Housemasters and housemistresses know the pupils in their houses very well indeed and can provide the security and stability that they need as they find their way through the maze of adolescence. And co-education allows boys and girls to grow up together and develop a social ease and confidence that is invaluable later in life.

Success, then, is multifaceted and does not lend itself readily to any form of simple measurement. League tables, in particular, are unreliable as schools pursue other forms of examination, and they make no attempt to measure opportunity, character, self-confidence or any of the other attributes that we regard as equally important at Cheltenham College.

Dr Alex Peterken took over from John Richardson as Headmaster of Cheltenham College in September 2010, having joined as Deputy Head in 2008. Educated at Eton College, he read theology at the University of Durham, and was also a choral scholar at Durham Cathedral. He holds an MA in educational management and a doctorate in education, specialising in school leadership. His first teaching post was at Charterhouse, where he spent 11 successful years. He held several senior posts, including Head of Theology and Head of Higher Education & Careers Guidance. His final six years at Charterhouse were spent as Housemaster of Saunderites.