IT was a mixed bag of results for the region’s secondary schools with some hitting the high notes while others appearing to fall short of the mark.

Today sees the publication of the Government’s league tables which shows how well students have performed in both GCSEs and further education.

The benchmark on which schools are judged is the percentage of pupils who achieve five A* to C grades including maths and English.

Following several years of improvement Southampton posted a seven per cent drop in overall pass rates across the city, down from 58 to 51 per cent – as the predicted drop in figures was recorded across the country.

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Hampshire, too, saw a marginal dip of one per cent, falling to 59 per cent, according to the GCSE results of 2014.

Factors including a change in the subjects that can be included in the measure and the decision to only allow the first entry exam result to count in the performance tables, rather than a student’s best result, combined to hit some schools harder than others.

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Cllr Daniel Jeffery, Southampton’s Cabinet member for Education, said: “While it is disappointing to see a drop in results after years of continuing improvement, these latest figures need to be seen in the wider context of changes in results across the country.

“I share the frustration of many headteachers who were forced by the Government to adopt new ways of assessing pupils with very little notice, which has had a considerable impact on some schools.

“I am confident that Southampton schools can get back on track on their journey of improvement.

He added that a second consecutive year of above-average progress made between primary and secondary education helped rank Southampton 40th out of 152 local authorities, its highest ever position.

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*King Edward VI recorded 100 per cent in the number of pupils achieving the benchmarch target, although this information had not been uploaded to the DfE website for publication.

*The Gregg School said its 1 per cent figure was as a result of its pupils taking iGcses which are not recognised in the government's data

 

 

His Hampshire counterpart, Cllr Peter Edgar, said: “I want to pay tribute to our secondary schools.

“They have dealt with a great deal of change in recent years and their collective performance on behalf of our children deserves recognition.”

In Southampton, schools including Redbridge, Woodlands and Oasis Academy Mayfield all came below the Government floor standard of a 40 per cent pass rate.

Headteachers have said that while results appear to have dropped it has not been a fair like-for-like comparison to last year.

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Academic achievement, they say, has gone up due to the narrowing of the curriculum but that has in turn disadvantaged schools in which results can now count towards the performance data.

Redbridge headteacher Jason Ashley said that a new framework is set to be introduced next year and if judged on that, Redbridge would be above the standard.

“We expected a dip with our brand new academic curriculum and we wrote to all our parents after Christmas with all of our internal data which sadly the Government has chosen not to publish,” he said.

Newly installed head at Woodlands school Toni Sambrook said they, too, had been hit by the changes, and added: “There are so many strategies that we have introduced this year to ensure that this year will be a success.”

Oasis Academy Mayfield principal Phil Humphreys said real progress had been made with a record number of students making the grade in maths and English.

He said that the academy was working towards an ambitious target for this year of more than 60 per cent of students making the Government’s benchmark target.