Listen now: Academies face closure unless exam results improve
Published Date:
22 August 2008
THREE of the Government's flagship academies are among at least 19 secondary schools in Yorkshire which face the risk of closure because they are still failing to meet a new target for improving GCSE results.
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The academies in Sheffield and Barnsley are on a hit list of schools which are failing to get at least 30 per cent of pupils to achieve five A* to C grades including English and maths.
Earlier this year Ministers gave schools which fell short of the target just 50 days to draw up plans to show how they would improve standards by 2011 or face risk of closure.
Last year's GCSEs saw 638 schools across the country, including 82 in Yorkshire, fail to hit the benchmark.
Now the Yorkshire Post can reveal that more than half of the region's secondary schools which were able to provide new figures yesterday are still failing to meet the required standard with their latest GCSE results.
Across the region 36 secondary schools were able to give new figures for this year's A* to C pass rates, including English and maths. The new results show that 19 schools failed to hit the 30 per cent target while 17 moved above the benchmark.
In Sheffield eight secondary schools remain below the Government's target, including two academies, which were opened two years ago to transform standards. Sheffield Springs and Sheffield Park Academy, which are both sponsored by the United Learning Trust (ULT), saw 22 per cent of pupils make the grade. Barnsley Academy, which also opened in 2006 and is sponsored by the ULT, had 14 per cent of pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths – six per cent down on last year's figure.
David Young Community Academy, which opened in Leeds to replace Agnes Stewart and Braim Wood High School for Boys, has seen its results pass the 30 per cent mark – with 33 per cent of students making the grade compared with 21 per cent last year.
Academies were set up by the Government to replace failing schools with independently-run privately sponsored institutions given greater freedoms over their teaching, admissions and employment arrangements.
The sponsors of the three South Yorkshire academies praised the performance of pupils in yesterday's GCSE results.
ULT deputy chief executive Charlotte Rendle-Short said: "Each of these academies has begun from a very low base. Achieving a culture shift after so many years of decline is a marathon not a sprint and there is much in these figures that signals that real progress is being made."
Barnsley Academy principal Dave Berry said the declining A* to C figure masked the real progress made at the school.
The Ridings School in Halifax which is due to close next year saw 13 per cent of its pupils achieve five A* to C grades, including English and maths. while Parkwood High School in Sheffield, which has already been identified as a potential academy, saw 11 per cent of students make the grade.
The full article contains 553 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
22 August 2008 10:21 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Yorkshire
