Best schools in the UK, league tables

When the best schools in UK are announced every year and the school league tables are published my heart sinks.

🧡 For the schools.

🧡 For the kids.

🧡 For the parents.

🧡 For the teachers.

The Scottish school league table 2023. Full list of the “best-performing” high schools in Scotland (google search for best schools in UK).

The new exam league table shows how many pupils left school with at least five Highers in 2022.

Highers, if you’re not familiar with them, are the entrance exams that the Universities specify for Scottish students.

So the ‘equivalent’ if you like, of A levels, although they are not exactly the same level, in UCAS points.

Having been through the school system as a student and now going through it as a parent, I am a firm believer in a school being a school. NB. our daughter’s school is ranked 288 out of 340 – we have nothing but high praise for the head, the teachers and supporting staff.

My brother and I went to the ‘best’ school in the area (The Ecclesbourne School) and neither of us did particularly well – it did us no harm.

The number of attributing qualities in a student that enables them (or not) to perform at a certain level are great.

What REALLY defines best schools in UK?

And pinning it all on schools and announcing the best schools in UK or being in the top 10 for example or not doesn’t help anyone.

It takes away a certain amount of personal responsibility on part of the student, the parent and places it firmly on the school and the teachers.

Students may have all kinds of factors impacting their ability to perform at this level, neurodiversity, poverty, dyslexia, unstable home life, different learning styles, mental health issues, physical issues, childhood illnesses – the list goes on.

And actually – does it matter?

Is there only one chance in life?

I get to work with some of these students in my role as a 1:1 tutor.

I also believe that ranking schools like this this also really hampers creative students.

Not all creative students are high achievers academically. Yet it is harder and harder for them to get into Universities and Art Schools these days due to the high grades required.

High grades don’t always equate to creative thinkers – practical do-ers and growing at the curriculum’s pace, they often grow as they wish, when the time is right.

But these best schools in UK league tables cause inflated house prices, certainly in specific parts of Edinburgh and it is making it difficult to rent or buy anywhere as the market is so hot.

As we know, making the divide, as ever, wider and wider.

I think we all know that life isn’t a single straight trajectory.

And it’s my firm belief that there’s SO much pressure on young people these days to perform well, to look like this, to be like that (in the palms of their hands).

Where are the league tables that show student happiness, fulfilment, resilience, empathy to peers, kindness, creativity, entrepreneurial mindset etc?

Can you point me in that direction please?

Please share with someone you know who needs to hear this today.

This article was written by Julie Read, a leading educator in the Creative Industries, as featured in The Guardian newspaper, on a mission to create a legacy to ‘unlock your creative genius’.

My passion and mission is your art portfolio, to help to get you that place at college or university.

CLARITY, in particular around the creative process, sketchbooks, and what the Colleges actually want to see are the founding principles.