Letter: Unfair league tables

Sir: It's no news that selective schools and schools that are better funded are at the top of the so-called league tables (report, 25 November). It's good news that schools such as St Clement's in Norfolk are improving their results.

The tables , however, still fail to demonstrate how good many schools are that find themselves trapped in the invidious position of being less popular, therefore undersubscribed, therefore the dumping ground for the "good" schools' rejected and disaffected pupils. Such schools begin with this disadvantage, yet they turn out children with grades far beyond the imaginings of the schools that have rejected these pupils.

They also achieve unmeasurable results in other ways. The Government and Ofsted are still obsessed with statistical data. Stats cannot show the ways that some children - many children - benefit from their "poorer" schools. As Einstein said, not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

ANDY GARNER

Executive member for Suffolk

Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Ipswich