Sutton's secondary school students were top of the class in both main public examinations last year, according to government figures released yesterday.

But the significance of the tables of raw attainment that made Sutton the leading local education authority (LEA) in mainland England was called into question by new Whitehall measures designed to quantify what schools do for their students.

Sutton headteachers across the selective and non-selective sectors welcomed the introduction of so-called value added' tables but said there were many ways in which they could be improved.

The borough was the leading performer among mainland England's LEAs in tests taken at 14 (key stage three exams) and 16 (GCSEs and GNVQs).

GCSE and GNVQ results improved significantly on 2001, with 64.8 per cent of candidates gaining five or more A* to C grades, or their vocational equivalent, a rise of 4.6 per cent, compared to a national growth rate of 1.5 per cent.

Across England, 51.5 per cent of pupils reached the standard.

At key stage three, year nine pupils achieved an average points score per subject of 37.2 as compared to the national average of 33.7. This means, in general, the borough's 14 year olds achieved well above the government target of level five in English, maths and science.

However, league table critics have long maintained raw results can never be a testament to schools' educational quality.

"Value added" tables are the Department for Education and Skills's (DfES) response, attempting to quantify pupils' progress from key stage two, the last primary school exam, to key stage three (KS2-3) and from key stage three to GCSE (KS3-GCSE).

But parents' ability to distinguish schools has been seriously hampered by the fact that, though higher scores signified greater added value, figures within a certain interval of the norm were not deemed statistically significant.

For instance, in Sutton, for KS3-GCSE, 10 of the 14 state secondaries could be classed as broadly average', with five in the same category for KS2-3.

According to headteacher Damien Charnock the second best in the country it was eighth for KS3-GCSE, scoring 99. By the same token, Cheam High came 13th in the KS2-3 (98.6) table and third for KS3-GCSE (100.4).

Mr Charnock, who broadly welcomed the measures, said this showed a deficiency in so far as the new tables failed to quantify the progress of pupils who got top marks at both key stage three and GCSE.

He said: "A boy who gets a level eight (the top grade) in key stage three is not that far away from an A* at GCSE, which is the maximum progress he can make."

Mr Charnock proposed a figure measuring improvement from key stage two to GCSE, as did Overton Grange headteacher Kieran Osbourne.

But though he professed to be "much more of a fan of value added than of league tables", he said factors such as the proportions of pupils on free school meals, with special needs and with English as a second language needed to be considered.

January 31, 2003 11:31