Foreword by the Secretary of State for Education and Employment

This is the fifth year that we have published performance tables for secondary schools. Since their introduction in 1992 the tables have proved to be a valued source of information on school performance. Next March we will publish similar tables for primary schools, reporting the results of 11-year-olds in their tests and teacher assessments at the end of Key Stage 2.

Each booklet covers secondary schools in a local education area in England. There are 119 booklets in all. Each summarises, by school, pupils' achievements in GCSEs, GCE A level and AS examinations and some vocational qualifications. The tables also record levels of pupil absence.

These tables show the high standards that schools can achieve. They can encourage teachers, parents and pupils to aim for the standards of the highest-achieving schools, locally or nationally. Information in the tables is helpful to parents when they come to choose secondary schools for their children. Last year two-thirds of parents with children moving on to secondary schools consulted the tables.

The performance tables are, of course, only one source of information about the achievements of schools. Three other key documents with more detail are: individual school prospectuses, governors' annual reports and inspection reports by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). You can get copies of these from the school - every entry in this booklet contains the school's address and telephone number.

A parallel set of tables summarises the performance of students aged 16-18 at schools and further education sector colleges. The School and College Performance Tables report results in GCE A level and AS examinations and in some advanced and intermediate vocational qualifications. You can order copies of any of the booklets - Secondary School or School and College - by ringing 0800 24 23 22. You can get a full set of the tables on electronic disk covering England as a whole from that number, and they are also available on the Internet.

Rt Hon Gillian Shephard MP

Secretary of State for Education and Employment