For Schools

Education Advisers Ltd prides itself on expertise and impartiality. So we take an exceptional amount of care in publishing our 12 different league tables which are on 12 of our websites.

On the biggest site www.best-schools.co.uk where the visitor numbers are just under 1 million per year, nearly 75% of visitors head straight for the league tables and 60% of those visitors come from the UK.

In the first instance we collect statistics from public sources such as the ISC press release, school press releases, newsletters and websites. Then we try to fill in all of the gaps – usually by writing to schools themselves – sometimes several times! This usually means we don’t publish till December (after the remarks are in,) but at least we get the vast majority of schools. A few schools complain that we have missed them, but 9 times out of 10 they did not reply to our letters! Anyway having an internet CMS means we can usually update scores or other data within 24 hours of receipt. Sometimes we have to draw the line when a school’s revised scores are based on remarks obtained much later than others in the table. We have to ensure a level playing field.

We distribute crystal awards to the top schools – generally in the top 10s and award certificates to all in the top 100s. We also try to ensure maximum PR for schools by publishing the award presentations on our sites and sending press releases out. We encourage all schools to do likewise on their websites and newsletters with a link to their position in the tables. Anyone with an award is free to paste our relevant logo into their PR

We list here a few of the principles we use

1. As a general rule we do not try to combine scores for different curriculums except the Pre-U and A Levels because we believe the conversion ratios are flawed, particularly for the IBDP to A Levels. In Scotland we keep Highers and A Levels separate.
2. We like to see a minimum of 20 in a cohort to make exam scores credible. However in the IBDP sector there are a number of famous schools with very small cohorts – so we have divided the tables into large and small cohorts.
3. We don’t like to see mixed curriculums where there is only one subject being taken at A Levels ( e.g the home language of the student )  and the rest of the subjects are say Highers or BTECs – so we tend to ignore the one subject results.
4. We will only categorise a school as a boarding school if it has at least 20% boarders or a minimum of 50 full time boarders whichever is the lesser.
5. There are quite a few gaps in the sixth form college table and thus we chose NOT to call it a league table, notwithstanding that we believe there is no one in the top 10 missing.
6. The prep school tables are based on schools in the Greater London area and again there are quite a few gaps. Notwithstanding this, we do have the data for many of the schools not in the published list if you need to discuss.

We are well aware there are a few Heads who do not approve of league tables (and indeed a few who  camouflage their results). However we go to great lengths to explain to our clients that there are many other factors in school choice. Given that nearly a million parents come to our websites each year with a priority focus to examine those tables, we believe there is a huge public interest in publishing these results in a fair way. Quite apart from using academic performance as part of our placement methodology we are well aware that numerous foreign agents use the tables and an ever increasing number are coming to joint ventures with us to do placements on an impartial non commission method.

We are delighted to discuss the subject with any school.