As an outsider, Steve, that's how it looks to me as well. And while private schools are not subject those assessments in the same way, teaching to the exam is precisely what happened in the public school I mentioned above. The aforementioned boyfriend's English classes studied précis and read one of two key scenes from books, but why on earth would you waste time reading the whole thing?

I agree schools can't directly manipulate external exams, but the bit I quoted from the report says different examination boards may be making the questions easier. If that is so, there is great pressure on the schools management via Ofsted and league tables to select the board which gives them higher results. In the panoply of manipulation that Steve referred to, that is small beer. Which makes that board more profitable, of course, so they have every incentive to do that as well. So there is at least one path whereby publishing league tables could be a direct cause of grade inflation.