School and College (Post 16) Performance Tables 2001

ABOUT THESE TABLES

General

These tables provide information to young people and their parents about the achievements of the sixth form students at the secondary schools and Further Education sector colleges in their area.

All schools with sixth forms and Further Education sector colleges with results in England are included. Schools and colleges appear in alphabetical order, LEA by LEA. Special schools that have chosen to be included and sixth form centres or consortia are also listed.

Qualifying for Success reforms

To reflect the Qualifying for Success reforms brought in from September 2000, which saw the introduction of new general and vocational A level and Advanced Subsidiary qualifications, these tables report the advanced level achievements of students after two years of study. This means that, in the main, these tables only include results in former A levels and Advanced GNVQs started two years ago, while next year's tables will report, for the first time, results in new general and vocational A level and AS examinations.

A number of schools and colleges have been involved in piloting the new qualifications ahead of their full introduction and have students who received awards over the past two years. Where applicable their results have been included. Similarly, in schools and colleges where second year students have taken the opportunity to study new general and vocational A level and AS qualifications from September 2000, their results have also been included.

Choosing a school or college

The information in this booklet will help if you or your child are considering what they should do after compulsory education, but it provides only part of the picture of the work done in schools and colleges. For example, colleges often provide for a wider range of student needs, offering other work-related qualifications such as NVQs, and include adults as well as young people among their students. You can find out more information about what is on offer in your local area from school prospectuses, from the information that colleges publish locally about their work, or from inspection reports. Your local Careers or Connexions service are also an important source of information and advice for young people considering their post-16 options. For further details of where to find more information about choosing courses and on the difference between types of qualifications, please refer to the back of this booklet.

How the tables were compiled

The tables report the results achieved by students at the end of two years of advanced study, and include some results in the new general and vocational A level and AS examinations. All A level and AS examination, Advanced GNVQ and International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma results were provided by the awarding bodies concerned and were checked by schools and colleges. Results in other specified vocational qualifications were provided by the schools and colleges themselves.

The examination and vocational qualification results in the tables were checked and provided by schools and colleges in early October. Some reviews requested of awarding bodies by schools and colleges of grades awarded to students were not completed in time to affect the information included in these tables. It is therefore possible that, for some schools and colleges, the information published would have been different had the results of any of the reviews been available earlier. If you have an interest in a particular school or college's results, you should check with the school or college.

If a school or college did not confirm that it had checked its examination results and/or background information, the initials 'E' or 'B' (or both) appear after its age range.