* School sixth forms outperform colleges in this year's official government 16 to 18-year-olds' performance tables, fuelling college claims that schools push their "rejects" into local colleges to gain an unfair advantage.
Based on average A-level point scores for students sitting two or more A levels, the median college sector score was 11 (with 10 points for a single A grade at A level), compared with an average of 20 points in the school sector.
The top performing institution in the college sector was Hills Road Sixth Form College, with an average of 28.4 A level points per student, compared with 38.9 points for the best performing school, Twycross House School.
Full tables are available on THES website: www.thesis.co.uk