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Well, many things – but, unsurprisingly for an industry dedicated to learning – academic achievement is frequently prized as the key factor.

So how can this be measured? Results in public examinations are a reasonably good indicator of academic achievement, and although exam results do matter, clearly, they aren’t the sole metric of a great education.

How, then, might private schools be compared against one another so that parents know which school achieves the highest grades? A league table that ranks each independent school by their GCSE and A-level results would seem to be a pretty sensible place to start. “So far, so good,” you might be thinking; or perhaps, “so what”? Please bear with me.

Value what you measure. Measure what you value.
What if academic “achievement” isn’t actually what we want to be measuring at all? What if the real metric here is not the fixed notion of “achievement”, but instead the journey implied by “progress”? Isn’t that what learning is all about? Improving, growing, maturing, developing, and striving to do the very best that you are capable of, whatever that “best” might be.

League tables have their place if you are the parent of a highly academic child, looking for them to be schooled amongst a selective cohort of similarly niche students, in an exams-focused environment, where the independent school has a vested interest in driving up its overall statistics – at any cost. For most parents this simply isn’t what they are signing up for.

For those parents who simply want their child “to do their best”, the only metric on which to judge independent schools is their ‘value added’ data. Put simply, it tells you how your child is likely to fare at one private school compared to the grades they would achieve if they went to another private school.

This data, which is generated by comparing GCSE and A-level results to standardised national baseline figures, is a far more accurate metric of the quality of teaching and learning in any given independent school. It cuts out ruthless academic selection, hot-housing, and questionable practices such as using different exam centre numbers to enter less-able pupils or those with special educational needs. It values the progress made by every single child, whatever the final outcome.

For the sceptics who (wrongly) suspect I may be attempting to distract from an unremarkable set of results at Hurst, you may wish to put our 2019 GCSE statistics (83% at grades 9 – 7) into The Times rankings of independent co-educational schools and you will see where we would have come. We are even prouder of our ‘value added’ scores, which celebrate the outstanding achievements made by every single one of our students and puts us right at the top of the national rankings.

To return to the initial question, what makes a great independent school? For sure, parents at Hurst want their children to achieve the very best results of which they are capable at GCSE and A-level. However, they also want them to be healthy, happy, rounded, kind, confident, mature, independent young adults, ready to go out into the world to live successful lives and make a positive difference to those around them. That’s definitely not something you can measure by a league table!

Dominic Mott, Head of Senior School, Hurst College

Please follow the links below for further information about Hurstpierpoint College, an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school for pupils aged 4–18, located just to the north of the village of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex.

Prep & Pre-Prep
Senior School
Sixth Form
Admissions
College Campus
Facilities

Hurst College’s inspection reports and reviews can be seen here:
ISC Inspection reports
Good Schools Guide
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