Prior Park College – The Real Measure of Academic Excellence

24 Feb 2016

Prior Park College Headmaster, James Murphy-O’Connor could not be more proud of the large group of Prior students who have just been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge and/or scored the highest grade in the Extended Project Qualification, a free-standing A2 qualification that is designed to stretch the more ambitious scholar.

With four Oxbridge offers just received to study subjects as diverse as Physics, Music and English, along with A* grades awarded for EPQ projects ranging from Replacing Chemical Rockets in Space Propulsion to The Fallen Woman in Victorian Literature, Mr Murphy-O’Connor sees these results as more measurable of the school’s academic ambition than the League Tables.

He comments; “We don’t need League Tables, based on dubious statistics, to tell us that academic excellence abounds at Prior. While we are known for an all-round education, it is at times like these when our most able academic students are rewarded for their rigour and dedication that we reflect with enormous pride on the quality of our teaching and learning programme.”

Indeed, Prior Park College has joined a growing number of quality independent schools around the country who are turning their backs on League Tables as an accurate measure of their academic achievement. This week Wellington College announced its intention to remove itself from the Tables, joining Eton College, St Paul’s and Winchester College who have already made the move.

Mr Murphy-O’Connor is adamant that the value of League Tables is questionable when so often statistics are not fully inclusive of all data, such as IGCSE; “We are currently in a state of flux in the United Kingdom with many new qualifications and grading measures being introduced. Some of these are not fully understood or represented; over the past few years the nationally and locally published League Tables have shown Prior Park College, along with other similar independent schools, with a 0% pass rate – this is because the government does not recognise IGCSEs, which our students sit and, in fact, the real figure is 97%.”
“Our Oxbridge offers and EPQ results provide a real measure of our students’ academic excellence – and I heartily congratulate them.”