3 things would actually make a difference. Much is made of the ‘why do independent schools do better’ debate; I think it’s down to this…
1. More teachers and smaller classes, thus allowing teachers to deliver less lessons and thus be better able to prepare, mark and meet with students 1-2-1 to offer advice.
2. Parental attitudes to success.
3. Stop government fiddling with things. New specs, new inspection regimes, new regulatory requirements. I give you the example of our maths and Geography departments, who have taught the same (ish) specs for the past 20 and 10 years respectively. Unsurprisingly the results are very good.
In any school there will be some curriculum areas that get better results than others. Good management is about spreading this success elsewhere.
I don’t need a bloody compass. What a moron.
GB