Value added scores in 2026
It is very tempting to judge the quality of a school’s teaching and learning by looking simply at the number of A* or A grades achieved by pupils at A level and the number of grades 8 and 9 at GCSE. These headline figures for rigorously selective schools look impressive, but of course they do not tell the whole, or indeed real, story.
Baseline tests are a tool used by schools to understand a pupil’s strengths and weaknesses; these tests also generate a set of grades that a pupil is likely to achieve in public examinations, by comparing the results with those of thousands and thousands of previous pupils who have gone through the public exam system. Pupils who are very strong academically will naturally have predictions of top grades in many, if not all, subjects, and it is these pupils who win places at highly selective schools and who naturally go on to achieve excellent examination results. When they achieve these results, they most certainly deserve congratulations. Pupils whose strengths are not primarily academic will have lower predicted grades, of course. The Value Added scores tell us how much better (or worse) a pupil has performed in a public examination than they were expected to.
Most children are not going to achieve a whole suite of grades 9 at GCSE and A* at A level, and so when parents are looking for the right school for their child, Value Added scores are key, as they are a measure of how much better (or, indeed, worse) pupils end up performing in public examinations than their baseline tests suggest they would. This is where Downside stands out from many other schools: we are a non-selective school, teaching pupils with a wide range of academic ability, but where pupils consistently achieve better results than might have been expected. Importantly, this is true for both our academically strongest pupils and those whose predicted grades are at the lower end of the scale.
In the most recent GCSE examinations, Downside pupils achieved on average one grade higher in their subjects than predicted. Our national ranking this year (1 being top, 100 being bottom) was 3; indeed, in French, Downside’s ranking was 1, in Spanish 3, in Biology and English Language 5. It is clear that with the support and excellent teaching Downside pupils receive, alongside their determination, resilience and hard work, all attributes developed throughout a Downside education, they really do punch above their weight in public examinations.
There is a similarly positive story at A level. Of course, with the Value Added score at A level being based on achievement at GCSE, where our pupils have already achieved better than their predictions, it is an even greater achievement to achieve positive scores, but this year we saw Art, Computer Science, French, German and Physical Education all being ranked at number 1 in the Value Added points, a remarkable achievement. Overall at A level this year, Downside pupils achieved a Value Added score that was 30% stronger than average for schools in England.
We strongly believe non-selective schools like Downside have an important place in a very competitive market. Pupils for whom academic work is not their strength benefit from being challenged and encouraged not only by their teachers, but by their peers; the collaborative work between pupils of all abilities, both in lessons and in independent study, is inspirational, and is mutually beneficial for academically stronger pupils as well, who strengthen their own understanding and knowledge by helping others. This mutual support is, of course, key to and underpinned by the strong Benedictive ethos that is nurtured in all aspects of life at Downside.