JAGS results

[new mother]

Does anyone know why they claim to have 94% A and A* passes (which would make them third out of the top 600 schools in the UK, per The Times) but don't actually appear on the list? (as far as I can see anyway and certainly not in that "94% slot")

Is it something simple like they refuse to submit their results to The Times or something?

Given the import that people place on these wretched tables each year, I'm intrigued!

[pebbles]

I'm not 100% but i'm pretty sure that they don't submit their results anymore - they did up to few years ago i think. Not sure why cos surely this is their best marketing tool?

Am also intrigued....

[pebbles]

I've just looked on their website and it says 79% got a or a* grades at a levels

[pebbles]

Sorry me again, just seen where you got your 94% stat - GCSEs

[new mother]

Yes, and it would make sense as their "competition", as it were, the likes of Putney High etc., is getting in the 90s.

Life is so much more more pressurised nowadays than it was for me, admittedly a million years ago. A child, whether clever or not, is under so much pressure to achieve in some respect. I remember laughing at stories of Americans working backwards from university to work out which nursery their ch should attend but the same approach is now here.

[new mother]

btw, Pebbles, the Times list is for top 600 at GCSE hence my focus on thta...

[R&A]

"Life is so much more more pressurised nowadays than it was for me"

I *totally* agree

I guess a separate thread, but WHY is it like this?

Is it because say (and these are just ideas rather than what *I* think:

1) Tougher environment to get into schools/universities, fewer job opportunities etc

2) People sacrifice soooo much for their kids these days. Woman (& men) giving up their careers they love/freedom they relish

3) Greater emphasis on financial gain/materialistic gain in life

4) Fewer 'eggs in the basket' as people have fewer children (or is that not true?)

thoughts?

[Ann]

I haven't seen JAGS results but they would not surprise me. My 16 year old daughter has many friends there ( and is presently at The Reading Festival with some of them).

JAGS girls work HARD. I cannot emphasise the work ethos at that school enough. My own daughter is at Clapham and Streatham High, a successful Independent girl's school but perhaps not such an absolute academic emphasis that JAGS has. The school doesn't pretend to not be 'pressurised'; it is exactly that and they recruit the girls they believe can cope. Not for the feint hearted but brilliant fot those with the abilty and determination to do their absolute best.

Good luck to them, they deserve it.

[new mother]

RA, very interesting post and, yes, it's an interesting subject so let's discuss it here...

I'd agree with everything you said and add to it, more information and fewer social barriers so that people know that with the right education, they can become respect people - lawyers, drs, dare I say bankers, etc. - when those professions were barred, effectively, by old boys' clubs in the past. Of course the British curse is for those succcessful people to be dogged by insecurity and to desire fiercely the recognition of those they have supplanted. They don't realise that their upwards achievement dwarfs the complacent staying put of those they have replaced and to whom they owe no deference. For so long as they can play it, those replaced will and do by clinging on to certain customs and modes of behaviour that exclude those not in the know.

Gosh: it's fascinating animal behaviour really. I could go on for hours.

Ann, thanks for your post too. Yes, I think you're right - JAGS is not for the faint-hearted but there is often great emphasis placed on the pressure generated by schools like this to obtain these results without focussing on:

1. it's reasonably easy to manipulate your results to ensure you come high (which might explain why they don't seem to be submitting them).

2. their girls are cleverer than the average bear. They aren't just hard working donkeys. They are girls who would excel where-ever they went to school. They are actually bright and anyone who tries to explain it all away by saying they just work hard is detracting unfairly from their innate ability.

[trinity]

Jags doesn't publish their results for the league tables because they believe education is about more than just academic results and therefore the league tables are not a helpful way of comparing educational establishments.

They are also ruthlessly selective. The girls at Jags are all highly academic (as well as being talented in many other ways. Those girls from the prep school who do not meet the very high standard required at age 11 are asked to leave and no quarter given. They also work extremely hard.

[SteveT]

One or two pupils moved from Jags to Alleyn's and my daughters said they enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere of the place, but the main issue was bitchiness.

At Alleyn's they could hang with the boys who always seemed delighted to have them around even if they were being given 'grief' by their feminine piers, where as at Jags there was nowhere else to go and consequently felt isolated and uncomfortable with the place.

If your daughter is extremely bright then it is the place to try first, but if they do not fit for some reason then Alleyn's is a very pleasant second choice.

Either choice is very expensive and I wondered when mine were at that stage if that money might be better invested in property for a more reliable return for their future.

Now they have jobs I realise that having any private school on your CV gives added access to interviews.

I remember some years ago killing time talking to a nun on a ferry and she said "if you are born a dunce you will die a dunce" I thought that a pertinent point.

Whilst we all agonise over their education after you come through the other end having helped them through hours of home work, it seems in retrospect a lot of worrying about nothing.

These league tables are such a lot of crap, what really matters is the quality of teaching available, and there is still only one or two teachers you come across in a lifetime who actually inspire their pupils.

[sillywoman]

new mother Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> 2. their girls are cleverer than the average bear.

> They aren't just hard working donkeys. They are

> girls who would excel where-ever they went to

> school. They are actually bright and anyone who

> tries to explain it all away by saying they just

> work hard is detracting unfairly from their innate

> ability.

Actually, from experience I would disagree with this. A couple of years ago we went through the secondary process and I witnessed first hand a couple of my daughters best friends get places at Jags, one I would describe as 'quite a clever girl', but nothing exceptional, the other was 'definitely mediocre' (as her academic performance all through primary school testified), but was intensively tutored from the end of year 4 to get through the private entrance exams. My eye's were truly opened to how the 'system' works.

[minder]

JAGS results were in the South London Press yesterday.

[new mother]

Steve,

Interesting and balanced post, thanks. I think it's true for the majority of ch, you will get your "educational investment" returned to you. Some will go off the rails, unfortunately, especially in london and it is a mega parent duty these days to try to guard against that happening. Vis a vis property, look at it like this. If you child becomes eg a lawyer in a top city firm as a result of your "investment", he/she will recover much more in one year financially than the cost the education involved or the average property would generate. And that's only looking at it coldly, in terms of money. There are many other benefits too, especially for the child to whose parents it's a stretch. Arguably, the very rich ones don't get nearly as much out of it as the ones who make big sacrifices to go. Actually, on that it never ceases to amaze and irritate me how people say sanctimoniously "I've got eg 5 children and I cannnot afford private education" - well, yes, but nowadays people choose to have children. We aren't Victorians with a baby every year. I would have loved 4 children but we could never have afforded the 150,000 school fees for each of them so..hello... we don't have 4 children.

Sillywoman, Interesting thanks. Their parents certainly did the right thing for them, then. Well done parents.

[redjam]

Sillywoman, Interesting thanks. Their parents certainly did the right thing for them, then. Well done parents.

Do you think? I had rather a different gut reaction, along the lines of poor girl, how must it have felt being 'intensively tutored' at such a young age, then presumably having to struggle to keep up with her academically more gifted peers once she'd got into the school? Surely there's more to good parenting than just wringing every last drop of academic success out of your child, despite their natural ability? Might she have been happier in a less pressured, less academic environment, even if it meant gaining slightly less impressive A-level results? Would that really have mattered in the long run?

Sorry, contentious view I know, and obviously I don't know the parents or child in question, but I really do feel strongly that 'success' in your child's life doesn't simply equal good academic results + high-flying/high-pressured career. More to life than that, surely?

[new mother]

Redjam, interesting point and calmly put when you had clearly been confronted by a 180 opposed viewpoint from me!

I used to think that "there 's more to lfie" etc. as your your post.

However, I now see that, to have choices in life, one needs good results. The child can then choose to be an artist let's say and never use his/her multitude of A levels but at least the apretns' actions resuling in him/her being given the option.

You may say - but what if the child ends up doing a job that's overly academic and one that he/she isn't really cut out for. In my experience and obseravtion, few jobs are actually taxing academically. People skills matter much more once the child hits the office environment, as a lawyer, let's say. BUt he/she will neve get there nowadays without the results.