Data published by the Department for Education shows that more
than 300 schools missed the government’s basic targets for 16-year-olds, as
grades at top performing schools also dip. The
number of failing schools has doubled in the past year as a result of an
overhaul of the exams system, official league tables show.
Figures published by
the Department for Education show
that more than 300 state schools missed the government’s basic targets for
16-year-olds, compared to 154 a year ago. Many
of the schools now face an intervention by ministers, which could result in
their closure or conversion into independent academies.
Overall the proportion
of state schools meeting the targets fell by four per cent to 56.6 per cent,
with results gained by pupils at many of the top performing schools dropping
significantly.
The dramatic fall in
grades, revealed in performance tables published on Thursday morning, comes
after a series of reforms designed to toughen up the exams system.
Nicky Morgan, the
Education Secretary, said that the dip in results was down to the removal of
many vocational qualifications from the performance tables and an effective ban
on resitting tests.
Mrs Morgan said the
latest performance tables showed that the Government was “restoring rigour” to
the education system. “We have raised the bar,” she said.
According to the data
the number of pupils taking GCSEs in so-called “English Baccalaureate” (EBacc)
subjects – English, maths, science, foreign languages and history or geography
– has risen by 71 per cent since 2010. The number of pupils taking history and
geography exams has increased by almost a third over the past four years, while
those entering languages has risen by 21 per cent.
Mrs Morgan said: “For
too long pupils were offered courses of no value to them and schools felt
pressured to enter young people for exams before they were ready.
“By stripping out
thousands of poor quality qualifications and removing resits from tables some
schools have seen changes in their standings.
“But fundamentally
young people’s achievement matters more than being able to trumpet ever higher
grades. Now pupils are spending more time in the classroom, not constantly
sitting exams, and 90,000 more children are taking core academic subjects that
will help them succeed in work and further study.”
Under the current
system, schools are considered to be failing if fewer than 40 per cent of their
students score at least five Cs at GCSE, including English and maths, and they
do not meet national averages in pupil progress. Overall 330 schools fell short
of this threshold last summer, DfE figures show.
However a DfE
spokesman said: "This is one of a number of factors schools are judged on
and it does not automatically mean the school will face intervention."
The top performing
school in the country was King Edward VI Five Ways, a grammar school in
Birmingham, where pupils scored an average of 685.5 GCSE points – the equivalent
of around 13 A* grades each.
It claimed the title
from Colyton grammar in Devon, where last year pupils scoring an average of
882.5 points – the equivalent of around 15 A* grades. Colyton’s average score
in this year’s tables dropped to 703.9, leaving it in 56th place.
England’s top
performing major private school was Brighton College, where pupils scored an
average of 561.7 points - the equivalent of around 10 A* grades. Overall the
best performing independent school was Al-Furqan Community College in
Birmingham, which fielded 10 pupils who also gained an average of around 10
A*s.
• Secondary school
league tables: how to read the results
• A-levels:
compare your school's performance
• GCSEs: compare
your school's performance
• Primary schools:
compare your school's performance
• Top 100
secondary schools by A-level results 2014
• Top 100
secondary schools by GCSE results 2014
The best schools for
the EBacc were Queen Elizabeth’s grammar in Barnet, north London, and
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls in Cheshire, where 99 per cent of pupils
gained good grades in all five areas.
The school with the
best performance in A-levels and other academic qualifications was Colchester
Royal Grammar School, for the second year running. King’s College School in
London came second in the A Levels table, followed by Sevenoaks School in Kent.
However, the figures
show that more than 440 colleges or school sixth-forms failed to ensure a
single student gained three good A-levels – two As and a B – in the subjects,
demanded by top universities.
The release of the
performance tables comes after exam boards warned schools that last summer’s
GCSE results may be “volatile” and appealed to governors not to sack head
teachers over disappointing grades.
Brian Lightman,
general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the
latest tables should not be compared to last year’s data because of the scale
of the changes introduced over the last 12 months.
For the first time,
the GCSE performance tables only count pupils’ first attempts in the rankings.
The performance tables
have also been affected by a sharp drop in English grades last summer following
the removal of speaking and listening elements of the exams from final marks. A
lower-than-expected English result could push a school below the government's
benchmark.
Writing for
telegraph.co.uk, Mr Lightman
described the past year as “a period of unbridled change”, adding that the
results could give a “skewed picture of a school’s performance.”
Nick Clegg, the Deputy
Prime Minister, said some schools appear to have been "caught out" by
the change in the way standards were measured, but believed they would quickly
adapt to the new system.
He told LBC radio:
"When you change the measurement of school performance, you always get a
dip and change in the relative standing of schools, and I think what happens is
that some schools just aren't aware that the benchmark against which they are
measured has changed, and then they adapt quickly and catch up.
"What we are
seeing is partly a reflection not of schools slumping in the education they are
providing kids, but that they are just not attuned yet to the new way in which
they are being measured."
• A-levels: compare your school's performance
• GCSEs: compare your school's performance
• Primary schools: compare your school's performance
• Top 100 secondary schools by A-level results 2014
• Top 100 secondary schools by GCSE results 2014
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