QE tops Government’s new A-level league tables

Queen Elizabeth’s School has the best A-level results in the country, according to new-style Government league tables.

This year, the tables show how many students achieved the new benchmark of two A grades and a B in core academic subjects. Publication of the new league tables follows research by the Russell Group of leading universities, which showed that students taking what it calls ‘facilitating subjects’ were much more likely to win places. These subjects are: Mathematics and Further Mathematics, English Literature, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, History and modern and classical languages.

By this measure, QE was the best-performing state school in England, with 65 per cent of pupils reaching the benchmark.

The other state schools in the top ten were Colchester Royal Grammar School in Essex and The Henrietta Barnett School in London, with 63% and 61% respectively. QE was in fourth place overall, behind three independent schools – Magdalen College School, Oxford, and St Paul’s Girls’ School, London, both with 70%, and Concord College in Shrewsbury with 66%. Three-quarters of the 200 leading schools nationally were from the independent sector.

Last summer, QE recorded its best-ever A-level results. For the first time, the proportion of A*, A and B grades achieved at the School rose above 98%, reaching 98.5% – up from 97.7 % in 2011. A large majority of boys gained places at Russell Group universities, including 25 with places at Oxford or Cambridge.

Welcoming the new league tables’ findings, QE Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Our boys’ very considerable achievements in public examinations are the result of their combining academic ability with sustained hard work. In this, they are supported by our very able and dedicated staff.

“I am pleased that the league tables have been strengthened by the new emphasis on core academic subjects and, of course, gratified that they have confirmed the excellent performance of QE pupils in 2012.”

More widely, the data published by the Government on the 2012 A-level results show an overall drop in the pass rate. The percentage of students who achieved passes equivalent to at least two A-levels decreased from 94.1% to 93.6% in 12 months. The proportion with three or more A*/A passes was down from 13.1% to 12.8%.