Selective free school head comes under fire from college principal for ‘complete untruth’ over A-level claims

The principal of a London sixth form college has hit back at a nearby head teacher’s claim in the national media that his highly selective free school was the only option for A-level learners in the borough.

Eddie Playfair, principal of Newham Sixth Form College (Newvic), described the claims of John Weeks, from the London Academy of Excellence (LAE), which requires prospective learners to have achieved five As or A*s at GCSE-level, as “a complete untruth”.

John Weeks
John Weeks

Mr Weeks, a former deputy head teacher at Brighton College independent school, was quoted in a piece in the Guardian about this year’s A-level results at LAE — the first free school sixth form college two years ago — as saying: “In Newham, there were hundreds and thousands of young people who wanted to do traditional A-levels.”

In the past they couldn’t do them because there was no one to provide them. Either they were having to go to school in the surrounding boroughs or — if they couldn’t afford to do that — they were having to take places at colleges here that didn’t provide biology, maths and history. They were having to do BTecs, GNVQs and that type of thing.”

However, in his blog, Mr Playfair hit back, writing: “This is a complete untruth. Newvic has been offering a very wide range of A-levels (all those available at LAE and many more) for more than 20 years.

Eddie Playfair
Eddie Playfair

“The many thousands of students who have taken A-level subjects at NewVic over the last 20 years and progressed to competitive degree courses in selective universities will be surprised to hear that they’ve been airbrushed out of the history of education in Newham.”

Mr Weeks’ claim came with figures that showed around 40 per cent of his sixth formers got AAB grades in traditional subjects, in comparison to 10.4 per cent national average.

In addition, four LAE students won places at Oxbridge, while 68 of its 160-strong cohort were set for Russell Group institutions in September — which works out to 42.5 per cent.

But questions have been raised about whether LAE’s results are comparable with the national average because it is so selective where other schools and college are not.

On Twitter, @lizziemaypalmer wrote: “Given how selective it is, LAE’s results/uni figures are not that impressive.”

And @Roborovski1 tweeted that the figures ignored that LAE, “is far more selective than most grammar schools (five A grades minimum)”.

Education blogger Henry Stewart, writing on localschoolsnetwork.org.uk, said: “One is tempted to ask not how LAE has done so well but why it was not able to achieve more for its highly talented students?”

He added: “In contrast to LAE, Newvic accepts virtually all young people who apply and has a fully comprehensive mix, including many taking vocational routes. It is truly a college that serves the whole community.”

The performance of LAE might be set against that of Newvic, where, of the 75 students who arrived with 5 As or A*s at GCSE, Mr Playfair estimated that more than 60 are going to Russell Group institutions.

He wrote: “Newvic’s university progression rates are very high: 767 students progressed overall in 2013, 99 per cent of all A-level applicants to higher education progressed and we regularly get students into Russell group institutions (60 in 2013, possibly more this year) including Oxbridge (two this year).

“NewVic is comprehensive, so our overall scores will not be as high as those of more selective providers but our A-level results will certainly bear a like-for-like comparison.

“We also have a wide and comprehensive vocational offer which is extremely successful and attracts learners in its own right. We recruit with integrity and have never pushed applicants towards vocational courses if they want to do A-levels and meet the entry requirements, why on earth would we?”

Mr Weeks declined FE Week requests today for comment.

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5 Comments

  1. Students and parents should think long and hard before applying to this ‘free’ school. LAE’s use of comparative statistics conceals a poor performance, considering it only admits students who attain 5xA*/A.

    LAE does not dare to compare similar cohorts in comprehensive institutions (or even selective ones!). It also rigs its results at the expense of a large number of its students. Students who attain less than 3 x Cs at the end of their first year have to leave. So LAE claimed to have an intake of 200 in 2012. This means, with 160 completing their second year, that 20% of the brightest students in Newham did not even finish their course! I know of no other 6th form in Newham of whom that is true. It also means that its Russell Group placement rate is 30% of those enrolled. For my own comprehensive college the equivalent figure would be 29% for students enrolled with the same entry requirements as LAE.

    This is staggering. LAE and eight other ‘free’ school sixth forms have benefitted from the £100m cut from 93 sixth form colleges with 150,000 students. With a total of 1,557 students between them, these 9 institutions had £62m poured into their coffers. They can also afford smaller class sizes on the back of private sponsorship and other mechanisms. The free school ‘success’ is a zero-sum game – it delivers privilege to a tiny few at the expense of education for very many more.

    There is a rationale behind all this. The reason Eton College and Brighton College sponsored LAE is not because they care anything for the students of Newham. These elitist institutions after all pride themselves on who they don’t teach, not on who they do. They have cynically used those they consider the most deserving of the deserving poor in Newham as fodder to cynically buttress a private education system where wealth and privilege counts for everything.

    By the way my college, NewVIc, has an entry policy of 5 A*-C. We send more students to Russell Group universities than LAE, which reflects the fact that we send more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to university of any other institution in England, 757 last year. Oh and we send students to Russell Group that LAE don’t even think are worth teaching at all.

    • happy parent

      The article and this response smack of the white liberal defensiveness that emerges when ethnic minority parents seek to access that which white middleclass families take for granted!!! My daughter attends LAE and did so on good but not excellent GCSE grades, certainly she achieved less than 5 A*/A grades! She has just taken her AS exams and achieved ABB, her value added score is exceptional. Quite simply the high expectations of LAE, its crop of young enthusiastic and ambitious high achieving teachers all contribute to an industrious atmosphere focused on getting its young people to set their sights high, work hard and attend universities that they would not previously have considered and who quite frankly would not have considered them! By contrast another child of mine attended NewVIC, my experience there was that NewVIC have a negative attitude to students of a certain type, they failed to support my child and they left at the end of the first year with nothing despite having GCSE grades that would meet LAEs stated entry criteria.
      Teachers and Principals in Newham’s post 16 sector need to get over their belief that they have the only model of education for disadvantaged learners, often the biggest disadvantage our learners face are complacent, self indulgent so called professionals who view ethnic minorities with missionary zeal or patronising low expectations.

  2. Samantha Ashdown

    My daughter went to LAE and I can tell you as a parent its a fraud, simply ridiculous and a waste of money. She had 5 A*’s in her gcse’s and she was taken in to study English, maths, Spanish and geography. LAE claimed they’d brush her up preparing for top uni’s. So when she came out with 3b’s in her as levels, they told her to leave! luckily her new year 13 helped her reach kings college.