School League Tables

Hi

Are such a thing available? I am looking to compare results/success rates for 4 schools in dublin in particular: Scoil Catriona, Belvedere College, Castleknock Community School and Castleknock College. Any ideas where i could get information on how they compare?

Thanks
CR

It depends what you mean by 'success'?

LC results are a very narrow focus depend on for chosing a secondary school.

There are some so-call 'league tables' published by the Sunday Times and the like but you will find they are incomplete and rather misleading.

You may find Whole School Evaluations on www.education.ie and some information www.schooldays.ie on the questions you need to be asking.

"LC results are a very narrow focus depend on for chosing a secondary school"

This is a fraught debate. There are various views, but the most common seem to be:

1. "LC results are the only\most important thing about a school." [I don't think many people actually hold this view]

2. "LC results are a very narrow focus..." which is frequently asserted in the context of almost sugesting that parents should not be focusing on Lc results at all; [not attributing this viewpoint to you Kildrought - just saying that many of those with this view would tend to say what you have just said] and

3. "LC results are one aspect of school performance, and should not be examined to the exclusion of other things BUT they are a key performance indicator. A school with poor LC results is unlikely to have a culture of excellence in other areas. If you are looking for an excellent school, then LC results are one way of screening out schools which are not excellent."

I think para. 3 above is a fair summation of how many parents feel. It annoys parents to be constantly (largely by teachers unions) told that LC results are an inappropriate way to measure school performance. Certainly they should not be the only way - but results count, and they count for a lot.

Thanks for the info. Will have a look at those sites.

Regards
CR81

Its mostly down to the individual student, not the school imo.

The Irish Times do a table each year comparing the percentage of pupils from each school that go to third level in Ireland.
The figures do not include third level institutions in the UK.
So if you want a rough guide to which schools get more pupils into third level - then that is probably the only published "league table" available.
The government are not too keen - nor are teachers it seems - on even publishing Leaving Cert results for each school. I understand that Leaving Cert results do not give the full picture of a school - but it might be better than nothing at all?

I kept a copy of last years table - so for the original poster the schools you asked about - Belvedere came 105 out of 405, Castleknock College came 136th and Castleknock Community College came 398th.
I couldn't find the other school you asked about.

"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?

Does anyone know when the Iris times will publish the table for the 2009 leaving cert results??

It's a combination of the two...the student and the school. 510 points was the average result in our year believe it or not. This was a result of an entrance exam and a focus on academic excellence.

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