The figures, which indicate the improvement made by A-Level students in the two years since taking their GCSEs, also put King’s in the top 5% valued added schools in the country.
King’s, placed 37th nationally, achieved their best results for many years last summer with all U6th students obtaining 100% passes, 47% achieving A* to A and 74% achieving grades A* to B.
Ian Wilmshurst, Headmaster of King’s School, Bruton, said: “We were delighted with the grades our students achieved last summer, and we are equally delighted with these valued added results. It shows how hard our students worked throughout the two years of the A-Level course. We were all very proud of what they achieved. I am also very proud of our teaching staff who helped our students to achieve these excellent grades.
“At King’s, we provide opportunities for every student to achieve their full potential, both inside and outside the classroom, and these value added results confirm that most of our students did exactly that.”
Anton Kok, the school’s Director of Studies, added: “We are extremely pleased that the hard work of our students and staff has been recognised by these value added results, especially from a non-selective school like King’s. It is a reflection of the excellent all-round education that we offer at King’s.”
This is not the first time King’s has been placed at the top of the value added results table. In 2006, King’s was ranked 10th in the entire country for their GCSE results.
The Department for Education base their value added figures on a comparison between their total points scored at A-Level, and the typical performance of students with similar characteristics and similar results at GCSE.
If the students’ total A-Level results are better than the average achieved by their peers in other schools or colleges, they will have a better value added score. If they do less well, the score will be lower. All individual student scores, positive and negative, are added together and an average produced for the school or college.
The value added score is then presented as a number based around 1000. This indicates the value the school or college has added on average for its students. King’s scored 1048.2 points, putting them way ahead of every other school except two in the whole of the south west.