Friday 29 August 2008

Dave Page, Deputy Chief Executive of Leeds City Council and a Director of Education Leeds from the beginning sent me this e-mail after he heard about the latest GCSE results...

"Chris, I did a bit of an analysis on the results myself yesterday and they are really impressive. When you recall that the pre EL 5A to C figure was 39% these figures are an improvement of 61% which is really remarkable . Am I right in thinking that these are the results of children who were 9 years old when EL started-it will be interesting in 2012 to see what the cohort who started school at the same time as EL achieve in that year. I think you've used most of the superlatives up but sincere thanks for all your efforts and those of the team for such a great achievement. Well done again. Dave"

Dave is right; 2012 is going to be a big year in so many ways.

Chris

My colleague Simon Flowers, headteacher at Carr Manor High School sent me a gentle reminder...

"Dear Chris, I trust you are well and have managed a decent break over the summer period.
The GCSE results across Leeds look to have moved significantly in the right direction – hopefully this will help all of us in our promotion of the city and encourage the DCSF to believe in us a little more. I am somewhat disappointed that we have been named in your blog as one of the schools below 30% - in statistical terms 29.7 rounds up to 30%. We are very pleased with the pupils’ performance – ahead of target and another step in the right direction. Credit is due to the pupils and staff for their outstanding work again this year. Hope to catch up soon. Best wishes Simon"

Simon is right, of course, Carr Manor High School is another one of our success stories and has made real progress under his inspired leadership; with a great team, in a brilliant building. I also agree that 29.7% rounds up to 30%. We also know that West Leeds and Wortley High Schools are merging and the composite score for the two schools already exceeds the target.

This means that we only have five secondary schools below the Government's new 2011 target of 30% achieving 5A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Mathematics.

  • Intake (19.9)
  • Parklands (19.0)
  • Primrose (18.7)
  • South Leeds (10.4)
  • City of Leeds, although we do not have the figure, their 5+A*-C is 29.7, so they cannot get above 30%.

Chris