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Population changes blamed as Peterborough slips in school tables
PETERBOROUGH has slipped further down the national GCSE league tables published today - despite an improvement in pupils' exam grades.
PETERBOROUGH has slipped further down the national GCSE league tables published today - despite an improvement in pupils' exam grades.See fully sortable league tables for Peterborough, Cambs and Lincs schools in our area.
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Last year, Peterborough City Council was ranked 138th out of 150 education authorities in England for its GCSE results and this year it has dropped by two places to 140.
This year's fall comes despite 40.6 per cent of pupils gaining five GCSEs, including English and maths, at grade C or above, compared to 37.2 per cent last year.
It was only five years ago that the city was 80th in the league and today city education chiefs said they were determined to stop the downward slide.
The council's assistant director of learning and skills Mel Collins said: "While this is much better than last year, we all know that it could be better, and we are working very hard to improve.
"The results have improved by nearly four per cent but we don't think that is good enough.
"It is great we have improved, however, because we have come from such a low position it is vital we continue to improve every year.
"Schools themselves are doing a lot. They are recruiting the best teachers available and looking at lesson plans and the curriculum to ensure they are relevant to GCSE courses.
"We have faced a number of challenges over the last few years.
"In September 2007, just two years ago, we closed 40 per cent of our secondary schools and opened two new ones, Voyager and Thomas Deacon Academy.
"This disrupted a number of pupils and teachers and we are still waiting to see the full benefit of the new schools - although I am sure we will see that this year.
"We also have a large number of pupils who are new arrivals to the city. While it is fantastic that they have integrated into the city - making it culturally rich - many do not have high English skills and it takes many years to acquire the sophisticated skills needed for a GCSE course.
"If you look at the number of pupils getting five A* to C grades without English and maths we are at 63 per cent, six per cent higher than last year, and we are very pleased with this."
Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson said there were some tough lessons for some city schools to learn.
He said: "Peterborough can only go up from here. We are in a very poor position and it is detrimental to the city.
"Part of the quality of life for a city is the quality of its schools. We do have some very good schools here in the city, but looking at the results it is clear that some others are not performing as well as they should.
"We have to look very carefully at why that is. I think it is likely to be a combination of things, including lack of parental support, teaching standards and leadership from headteachers.
"I think we need to look at some of the success stories such as Thomas Deacon Academy. They have had very strong leadership, a strong coherent strategy and good quality of teaching staff.
Continues on next page"If we could get other schools to look at what they have done, it could be beneficial."
MP for north west Cambridgeshire Shailesh Vara added: "While it is good to see that the number of A* to C grades has risen, clearly the overall position should be better.
"I hope that there will be continued improvements in exam results and that Peterborough will start to climb the league tables in future years."
The council's cabinet member for Education, Skills and University, Councillor John Holdich said: "We are just starting on a journey and we are starting at the bottom end of the ladder. The journey will take a few years, but it is the start of a journey to excellence.
"Our exam results have gone up and this comes with the background of a changing population, where many schools have a large number of pupils with English as a second language.
"Many of these pupils have come in to a school at year 8 or 9, which reduces the chances of getting five A* to Cs by 20 per cent compared to if they started in year 7."
See fully sortable league tables for Peterborough, Cambs and Lincs schools in our area.
See also:
GCSE results improve for some schools
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