East Kent tops for A-level results

GRAMMAR school pupils from Dover, Deal and Sandwich topped the county with their A level results, according to the latest league tables.

The head teachers of the Dover boys' and girls' grammar schools say that when compared with other Kent grammar school pupils, their students are top of the list.

Heads Neil Slater and Julia Bell, in a joint statement, warned that league tables had to be interpreted with care, comparing like with like.

"We have compared our schools with the other grammar schools in Kent and Medway and; more locally, with the grammar schools of East Kent.

"We have used the average point score per candidate, the best and most important measure of school performance at GCSE and A-level.

"Both the boys' and girls' grammar schools have individually done extremely well in the leagues of their own kind.

"Because girls do better than boys everywhere, and because in some towns there are mixed grammar schools, the method we have used to really compare like with like and to include all the grammar schools in the county is to amalgamate the grammar school results in each town." This shows that the Dover and Sandwich grammar schools topped the county in the A-level league table with 23.7 points a pupil, followed by Gillingham and Tonbridge with Tunbridge Wells.

In the GCSE table, the Dover grammar schools came fifth with 59.2 points. Sandwich was ninth on 56.7.

Said the head teachers: "In east Kent, "Dover is clearly the best at both levels."