BBC News | WALES | School league tables 'set for review'

Welsh Assembly Education Secretary Jane Davidson has announced a plan to review the way school league tables are published in Wales.

The figures for 2001 will take into account schools' social backgrounds and how much they have improved year on year.

The decision was a response to calls from teachers for a fairer representation of achievements by pupils of differing abilities and backgrounds.

Ms Davidson believes the statistics need to have supporting social data to present a fair picture of a school's performance.

She told BBC Radio Wales that parents and teachers should also be given the information to consider how schools contributed to childrens' lives.

"At the moment, that information is not in the league tables," said Ms Davidson.

"The tables can be very divisive. It is all very well if parents live in an area with a choice of schools, but the reality is different for many.

"What I am doing is announcing an open consultation."

Click here for this year's tables

David Reynolds, Professor of Education at Exeter University, said the move was unlikely to sound the end of league tables.

He predicted two types of league table, giving a balance of data.

Ms Davidson's statement on Wednesday coincided with the publication of a breakdown of GCSE results across Wales, school by school.

Overall in Wales in 2000, 49% of pupils achieved five GCSEs at the top grades, A* to C, an increase of 1% on 1999.

Assembly education minister Jane Davidson welcomed the results

But this is still some way off the Assembly's target of 54% of pupils getting A* to C by 2002.

In 2000, 85% of pupils achieved at least five passes at all grades, A*-G, a 2% increase on 1999.

The tables released on Wednesday show the GCSE results in each school in the year 2000.

Click here to see how education authorities compare

The top school in Wales was Cowbridge Comprehensive, where 86% of the pupils got at least five grades A* to C, compared with 83% the previous year.

Second was St Brigid's School in Denbigh with 82%.

In third place were Cardiff High School and Bishopston Comprehensive, Swansea, with 79%.

In fourth place - the top Welsh-medium school - was Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, Swansea, with 76%.

In fifth are two other Welsh-medium schools, Ysgol Gyfun Bro Myrddin, Carmarthen and Ysgol Gyfun Ddwyieithog y Preseli, Crymych, with 75%.

The bottom five schools are: Tredegar Comprehensive, with 24%; Bedwellty Comprehensive, Bargoed, with 23%; Penlan Comprehensive (Boys School), Swansea, and Hartridge High School, with 22%; Dillwyn Llewelyn Community School, Swansea, with 14% and Glan Ely High School, Cardiff, with 8%, a fall from its 9% figure last year.

The table below shows the 22 education authorities in Wales ranked on the basis of their schools' GCSE performance.

The highlighted column is the average percentage of pupils who achieved at least five A* to C grades.

The other figures are the percentage who achieved A*to C in each of mathematics, science and English or Welsh - the "Core Subject Indicator".

LEA	GCSEs	CSI
Ceredigion	60	45
The Vale of Glamorgan	58	43
Gwynedd	56	41
Powys	55	40
Conwy	55	38
Monmouthshire	54	42
Pembrokeshire	52	40
Carmarthenshire	52	39
Swansea	51	38
Flintshire	50	33
Isle of Anglesey	49	38
national averages	49	36
Neath Port Talbot	49	35
Denbighshire	48	36
Bridgend	46	35
Cardiff	45	33
Rhondda, Cynon, Taff	45	33
Torfaen	45	33
Wrexham	44	32
Newport	42	33
Merthyr Tydfil	41	28
Caerphilly	40	29
Blaenau Gwent	36	25

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