Schools are being “thrown to the wolves” over a decision to publish GCSE performance tables for 2022, headteachers will warn on Friday.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) in Birmingham on Friday morning, its president Pepe Di’Iasio is expected to say that the Government must rethink its decision to publish key stage 4 and post-16 performance tables based on this summer’s GCSE and A-level results.

In a speech to more than 1,000 delegates at the International Convention Centre, Mr Di’Iasio is expected to ask: “How can it be right to compare the performance of one school or college with another when they have been so differently affected by the pandemic over the last two years?

“The government’s answer is to say that it will place a health warning on performance tables and advise caution when considering the data.”

He will say: “Surely, if the data is unreliable, the obvious answer is not to publish it in the first place.

“This is not a small matter. Careers and reputations are affected by performance tables. Newspapers publish them.

“It feels as though we are being thrown to the wolves by the government’s insistence on going ahead with this misguided and counterproductive policy. That is a pretty terrible way to treat a profession which surely deserves more respect after the last two years.”

While the Department for Education decided not to publish key stage 2 performance tables for 2022 based on Sats exams taken by year 6 pupils, it will use GCSE and A-level results from the 2021/22 academic year for secondary school league tables.

In its guidance, the DfE said: “We recognise the uneven impact on schools and colleges of the pandemic and will ensure clear messages are placed on the performance tables to advise caution when drawing conclusions from the 2021 to 2022 data.”

An ASCL survey of 1,400 schools teaching GCSEs showed that more than 80% disagreed with the publication of performance tables this year, while just over 10% were in agreement.

And 80% of schools offering A-levels disagreed with publishing league tables this year based on the summer exams.

Reasons given included how schools had been impacted by the pandemic in different ways, with huge variations in staff and pupil absence. For schools with a higher proportion of poorer pupils, they were disproportionately impacted.

There was a contradiction in how measures to make exams fairer for students did not mean they were fairer for schools overall, some respondents said.

Of those who agreed with the publication of performance tables the reasons given included it being important for parents to know how schools are performing and that the public needed reassurance that schools were getting back to normal after the pandemic.

Two-thirds of school and college leaders agreed with adaptations to exams to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic this year, ASCL’s survey found.

This year, in all subjects with the exception of English literature, history, ancient history, geography and art and design, pupils will be given notice about the topics to be covered in this summer’s exams.

The information is designed to aid their preparation and help focus their revision.

In GCSE maths, combined science and physics, pupils will be given equation sheets to reduce the number of equations they need to memorise.

And in GCSE English literature, history, ancient history and geography – subjects where advance information will not be released – pupils will study and be examined on fewer topics.