About these tables

General

These tables give the results of secondary age pupils in public examinations and vocational qualifications, information on rates of pupil absence, and certain background information. The tables list secondary schools in the area, including:

• LEA-maintained schools;
• grant-maintained schools;
• City Technology Colleges; and
• independent schools.

Schools are listed in alphabetical order. Special schools are listed in a separate section towards the end of the tables.

If your child already attends a school listed in the tables, you will be interested to see how the results compare with those of other local schools, and and with the LEA and national averages.

You may wish to discuss the results with teachers at your child's school - how do they feel the school is performing, and what plans do they have to improve levels of achievement? How can you support the work of the school? What more can you do to help your own child do better?

Choosing a school

If you are considering which secondary school your child might attend you will find helpful information in the tables about the performance of schools in your area.

The information in these tables provides only part of the picture of each school's overall achievements. You can find more information in school prospectuses, governors' annual reports, OFSTED reports and other such publications. State schools - including CTCs - must give parents prospectuses if they ask for them. Independent schools normally do this as well.

How the tables were compiled

GCSE, and GNVQ results for 15 year olds (pupils in their final year of compulsory schooling) came from the examining bodies concerned, and were checked with schools. Results for other vocational qualifications were provided by schools.

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

Information about authorised and unauthorised pupil absences and background information (such as the school name and address) was provided and checked by schools.

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