Academic success at Sedbergh School: looking beyond exam grades

As pupils across the country prepare to receive their A-level, BTEC and GCSE results, headline grades and league tables will once again dominate the conversation.

For Robin Pyper, Headmaster of Sedbergh School, those figures matter—but they do not tell the whole story. Sedbergh is proudly non-selective and academically ambitious, with a strong focus on the progress each pupil makes from their individual starting point.

In this conversation, Robin explains why value added, effort, character and the right next destination offer a more meaningful view of success—and why pupils who can honestly say, “I have done my best,” deserve to feel proud.

Sedbergh is proudly non-selective but also academically ambitious. How do you define academic success in that context?

Academic success begins with ambition, but it is not defined by a single grade or outcome.

One of our core values is ambition, and that is at the heart of a lot of what we do—almost everything we do, in fact. The same is true of academic rigour and our approach to academic studies.

Our pupils come from a very broad and diverse range of backgrounds, and that is important to us because it is representative of real life.

What we are looking for is for a pupil to walk out of every single lesson, every prep or homework session, or every exam and say, “I’ve done my best.” If they can get to that point, then we are happy with them.

That is something we think translates very well to the world of work. We are not going to be experts in every single field, and that is okay. As long as we are giving it our best, that is the most important thing.

When we look at a pupil’s academic journey through their Senior School career, there are, of course, going to be ups and downs along the way. Again, that is okay. We are there to support pupils when they are facing challenges, and we are there to celebrate their successes when they meet them.

Some parents associate academic strength with academic selectivity. Why is that too narrow a way to judge a school?

What interests us is taking a pupil from their individual starting point and helping them to progress.

Pupils can leave a whole range of different schools with high levels of academic attainment. But, for us, it is not really the academic attainment—the grades—that matters most. It is about the qualities pupils have developed during their academic journey with us. That is far more important.

An academically selective school looks at someone’s baseline and says that they have to be at a certain level to gain a place. We are not about that at all.

Value added is therefore very important to us. By value added, I mean that if we can take a pupil who is predicted, let us say, a C or a B at GCSE and help them achieve one or perhaps two grades higher, then that is us doing our job as teachers and educators.

That is how I would much rather assess our performance as a school, rather than simply looking at overall grades. Our value added is very strong at A level, BTEC and GCSE, and that is the piece of data I am particularly interested in.

It is important to remember, though, that it is not all about data. A very wise colleague said to me early in my teaching career that we have made the measurable important, rather than making the important measurable.

Measuring academic success through examinations and coursework is relatively easy. Pupils sit the exam or complete the coursework, we mark it and give them a grade. What that does not tell you is which qualities that pupil has developed in order to reach that point.

Collaboration, curiosity, effort and attitude towards learning are far more important than a single result.

As our children and young people go out into the world of work, those qualities are more significant determinants of success than a grade achieved at GCSE or A level.

What should academic aspiration look like? Is Oxbridge always the right goal?

Aspiration has to fit the pupil.

If a pupil wants to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics, then absolutely, we would encourage them to apply for a place at Oxford. But if they want to study agriculture or sports science, or pursue a degree apprenticeship, then Oxford is obviously not the right destination.

It is our job as a school to create pathways that allow pupils to explore their options while they are still here, because we do not want to close those options off too early.

Once a pupil has settled on a particular direction, that is when we, as a team, need to gather around them and provide the learning opportunities and support that will help them reach that point.

Around 80% of pupils who leave us progress to their first-choice destination, whether that is a Russell Group university or a degree apprenticeship, which is becoming much more popular.

When you look at a year group on results day, what are you really looking for beyond the headline grades?

I have spoken a little about value added already, and that is key. I think it is a much better way of assessing success.

We are a non-selective school, so looking at the grades alone does not really tell you the full story. It does not show the effort, the blood, sweat and tears that have gone in over two years, whether we are talking about A levels or BTEC. The grade itself is not a complete representation of that journey.

Value added tells a much richer story.

If a pupil has improved, and we have helped that pupil to improve, then that is a much better measure of our impact as a school. It also says more about the pupil’s own approach to their studies over those two years.

What does academic ambition look like for a pupil who may not arrive at Sedbergh as a top-grade student, but leaves with confidence, direction and strong results?

We have 530 pupils here at Sedbergh, and they are all individuals. They are all uniquely brilliant, and through their time with us—and after they leave—they will go on different journeys at different paces.

Of course, we want to help pupils achieve the best possible grades they can. But ultimately, what we are looking to do is nurture qualities and character traits that will stand them in good stead, no matter what situation they find themselves in. That might be in the world of work or academia, but it might also be in social situations.

The bedrock of that is our core values of humility, ambition, resilience and kindness. There are also other qualities that pupils develop through the experiences they have here, not just within the classroom.

For us, it is not simply about the grades that come out on results day. A pupil achieving straight As is fantastic, and we will obviously celebrate that.

What really matters is what pupils can go on to do with everything they have learned here.

As results day approaches and league tables appear everywhere, how should families think about successful outcomes beyond a single league-table measure of success?

I think it is about understanding the individual journeys that pupils go on. Families looking at Sedbergh will not necessarily be able to see that from a league table.

We have already spoken about value added, and I think that is a much better measure of what we do as a school—and, more broadly, of what schools across the country do—because it tells you what we are supporting children to achieve beyond their starting point. I think that is fundamental to our work.

It is also important to recognise the whole picture. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but we are trying to nurture young people who will ultimately go out and make a positive difference in the world. You cannot really assess that on results day.

The best way to understand the impact of a Sedbergh education is to meet Old Sedberghians five, ten, fifteen or twenty years after they have left.

You can see where they have ended up and what they are doing, but also understand the journey they have been on, the experiences they have had and the people they have helped along the way.

What would you say to a pupil opening their results in August who has worked hard, made real progress and secured their next step, even if the grades are not quite what they hoped for?

If they have worked hard—whether they are walking off the sports pitch, leaving the music practice room, coming out of a lesson or walking away from an exam—and they can put their hand on their heart and say, “I have done the best I possibly could,” then we cannot ask for any more.

That is the foundation of everything we do. Effort and attitude are more important than final attainment.

As long as they can say that honestly, we are incredibly proud of them. They have made progress, they have secured their next step, and we know they will go on to do positive things in the world.