It comes as no surprise that Nick Seaton of the NGSA doesn’t want a more rigorous performance measure for his schools. After all, that would show that there are plenty of them whose performance is dismal when taking into account the ability of their intakes. Much better for the selective schools to have their performance compared with comprehensive schools, which have to deal with all those ability and behaviour problems from which they are protected.
Chris Healy, Headteacher, Balcarras School, Cheltenham.