St Olave’s grammar school, situated in a leafy corner of Orpington in the London borough of Bromley, prides itself on being one of the leading state schools in the country.

Founded in 1571, the school has a long and illustrious history dating back to Shakespeare’s London. In 1968, it moved out of central London and now occupies a pretty site on the fringes of the capital, surrounded by eight hectares (20 acres) of tree-lined playing fields.



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Competition to win a place is intense – every year more than 1,100 boys apply for the 128 available places in year 7, with others joining the sixth form, which is mixed gender. Recent students of the school include Harriet Harman’s son and the granddaughter of Tony Benn, while among a long list of notable old Olavians is John Harvard, the first benefactor of Harvard University.

The headmaster’s welcome on the school’s website boasts a string of achievements, including the Evening Standard school of the year in 2015 and Sunday Times state secondary school of the year in 2009.

Over the last seven years, it says, more than 200 of its students have taken up Oxbridge places, adding: “Even in the context of St Olave’s, 2016 was astonishingly successful, with 40 Oxbridge offers and 27 for medicine; this year we have 39 Oxbridge and 35 medics.”

Last week, St Olave’s celebrated 90% of GCSE grades at A*/A or the new levels 9/8/7 in mathematics and English. At A-level, sixth form students achieved a remarkable 96% A*/B grades. Critics claim, however, that results are high because students at risk of lower grades are weeded out at the end of lower sixth, or year 12.

The process this year began on the last day of term in July when letters were handed to all year 12 students. According to parents, one set were told they had secured the required grades and their place in year 13 was confirmed; a second set were put on warning following unsatisfactory results for internal exams, until the outcome of their AS levels in August; a third set were told their grades in their internal exams were not good enough and that they were out.

Parents were horrified. “There was no counselling available, there were no parents there. They were just given this letter,” said one mother. “It was shocking. These kids have been at that school since year 7.”

Others had to wait for their AS results in August to see if they had made the grade. “It was absolute carnage,” said one parent. “It was dreadful. There were just groups of children in tears.”

One mother, whose son was asked to sign a contract in order to return to the school in September, said: “I was so proud when he got into the school. He has loved it. He has made friends for life. But this whole process has been so miserable.” The family were still weighing up their options.

Aydin Önaç. Photograph: St Olave's website

Another parent, who complained to the school, received a letter from the headmaster, Aydin Önaç, in which he denied permanently excluding the boy, but said he had failed to meet “floor-standard requirements” and advised him to continue his studies elsewhere.

If he insisted on pursuing a place at St Olave’s, the headmaster said the boy would not be allowed to study an A-level programme, but would be offered a GNVQ in health and social care, which he described as commensurate with the boy’s ability. The headmaster later amended the offer to a BTec.

Another mother said her daughter was devastated to be told she would not be entered for one of her A-level exams after she got a C in her mock. In the end she had to take the exam as a private candidate. “It really affected her confidence.”

Her daughter said: “I felt like the worst student in my year. This was overall a very stressful experience for me. The fact that the school tried to tell me that removing me from the course was ‘in my best interest’ and for my own ‘welfare’ was just an untrue statement. I felt personally embarrassed.”

Another parent said: “We understand there have to be rules and regulations, but at every school, the all-round wellbeing of students should be a top priority and decisions made in their best interests.”

Önaç, who became headmaster at St Olave’s in 2010 after a stint as head at another popular state secondary school, Fortismere in north London, announced his arrival by eating a baked tarantula in a school assembly to raise money for a new sports and drama centre. Since then he has made no secret of his ambition to build on the success at St Olave’s.

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Some teachers at the school have contacted the Guardian to express concern. One, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the stress the exams had put on students: “It’s been really hard to witness. I’ve felt very much these weaker students are being treated as collateral damage in pursuit of league table position.

“There’s a feeling if you are not getting those absolutely top exam results, you’re not worth talking about. But at the end of the day these are children we are dealing with.”

Experts in the education sector say the practice is being applied in other schools, in response to league table competition.



Dave Thomson, the chief statistician at the Education Datalab thinktank, said the government was planning to introduce a new performance measure to monitor pupil retention post-16.

In a recent blogpost he wrote: “We can understand why this measure has been introduced. Numerous correspondents have discussed with us the practice of some schools asking students to leave after year 12, alleging that the schools are more concerned with league table standings than the interests of their students. In other words, there is a perverse incentive to encourage students to leave, in the race to improve indicators of attainment.”

John Ward, a retired teacher who worked at St Olave’s for 26 years, said: “It’s a great place. I’ve really enjoyed all aspects of working there. The staff are really great – they’re clever and supportive. The students are challenging because they’re so bright.”

But, he added, there was now far more stress and pressure on both staff and students because senior management were intent on getting to the top of the league table. “When you are focused on your league table position, then you have to be focused on your success in exams.”

The school, which is voluntary-aided, is selective at year 7, and again on entry to sixth form, but Ward disagrees with any policy to remove students at the end of year 12.



“Once you accept these children in year 12, it’s on the understanding that they continue to the end of year 13, that they complete their A-level course so they can prepare for university. That should be our contract with them.”



To eject pupils at the end of year 12 was, he said, “a cruel thing to be doing and to my mind unnecessary. It certainly isn’t in the students’ best interests. It’s probably always gone on, but not to the extent it is now.”

The school did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

