"Its mostly down to the individual student, not the school imo."
I strongly disagree. Why do Kilkenny win more All Irelands in hurling than anybody? Why do Kerry do the same in football? Is it down to the individual players?
I went to a (non fee-paying) school. Entrance was by exam, with preference to candidates who had siblings in the school. The classes were streamed, and there were maybe 25 students per L.C. class. I was in one of the two higher streamed classes (there were three more classes). I think about 6 or 7 of my class did medicine. I got stick for going into Arts, when I would have got medicine had I applied. Virtually the entire class went to Uni. Ditto for the other high stream class. Overall, well over 50% of l.c.students went to Uni, and another 15-20% to other third level. I thought this was normal: it wasn't - but it was the culture that existed in this school. And this was not, by the way, the posh\upwardly mobile school where I grew up (a role assumed by the Jesuit school)
Recently (well, circa 8 years ago), a local secondary school in the town where I now live had an entire class fail Junior cert maths. The entire class. If this is 'down to the individual students' I am a monkey's uncle. Nobody was sacked or even disciplined over this. Is it any wonder that parents want to be able to see results?