Increasingly, Bristol parents are calling for a richer portrait of schools—beyond exam data alone. They ask about mental health support, inclusion, extracurricular activities and SEND provision .
00:00Parents in Bristol are paying close attention to league table results, but many still weigh them alongside other vital factors.
00:09The latest Department for Education data shows that just over 43% of pupils in the city achieved Grave 5 or above in English and Maths at GCSE, below the national average of 46%.
00:23At the top end, grammar and independent schools, like Queen Elizabeth's Hospital and Bristol Grammar School, saw almost all pupils reach that mark.
00:34But many families question whether placing their child in a high-performing school guarantees success.
00:41Leaders of local state schools argue that Progress 8 scores, capturing pupil progress from primary to GCSE, tell more meaningful of a story.
00:51I would have in the past, because I had four children, so yeah, that would have mattered, but not a huge amount, because generally you're stuck by where you live and you don't have much choice as to which schools to go to.
01:07I don't think so. Me, I've got two siblings, my sister went to a private school, my brother went to a comprehensive, I went to a grammar school, so we all kind of did completely different things.
01:19So, I don't know, they might have considered that, but it wasn't something that we really discussed.
01:27It didn't really cross my mind. I mean, I was quite lucky I went to a school where they had, like, good results, but it didn't ever really cross my mind, to be fair, when you're, like, 16.
01:38Kind of just, yeah, that's the thing you really care about.
01:41At St. Bede's Catholic College, pupils achieved a Progress 8 score of 0.57, well above the city average, suggesting strong value-added performance, even if raw GCSE performance rates may lag behind.
01:58For many parents, this is reassurance that schools are supporting students to grow, regardless of background.
02:05No. No, I don't have kids, so it's not really of interest to me, I suppose.
02:12Yeah, definitely, because it's just some sort of, it's an idea of the standard of the school, I suppose, yeah.
02:18I can't say it is. I can't say it is. I mean, I haven't got any kids, so it doesn't really bother me, I guess.
02:26What about, like...
02:27I mean, I live in, like, a really small little rural community, so there wasn't many, sort of, I'd like, two secondary schools.
02:36But, yeah, you would have had to travel quite far, I think, for different options.
02:42That said, league tables still wield influence.
02:45Research indicates fewer than a third of parents solely rely on these rankings when choosing schools.
02:52Most surveys, the latest inspector reports, speak to current parents and factor in location and pastoral reputation too.
