THE HEAD of a Yorkshire school which serves a former mining community where unemployment once stood at 33 per cent said raising pupils' aspirations has been the key to success.
Willowgarth High School in Grimethorpe, near Barnsley, has been named as the best in the region at improving its pupils'` performance in today's secondary school league tables and received a letter of congratulations from Schools Minister Jim Knight.
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For the second year in a row the school was the region's best performer in a table which measures how much value has been added to a pupil from the moment they arrive in school to when they take their GCSE exams.
The value added measure was introduced into the league tables last year in an attempt to combat criticism that the system favoured schools in more affluent areas or with more academically able pupils.
Willowgarth High School, Feversham College for Muslim girls in Bradford, St Wilfrid's Catholic High School in Pontefract and the Barnsley Academy all received letters of congratulations from the Government for being among the top 200 schools in the country for improving their pupils' performance.
Willowgarth finished top in Yorkshire and 29th in the country overall.Its headteacher, Tony Loveday, said: "We introduced personalised learning a number of years ago.
"Pupils pick subjects for GCSE at the end of year nine (13 to 14 year olds) but if they have chosen topics that are inappropriate then we take them out of them and get them to focus on subjects they are going to be able to be successful in – it is a no brainer.
"All the pupils do eight GCSEs or more and they still do all the core subjects of English, maths and science but if a pupil is doing history or CDT (craft,design and technology) and they are struggling then we give them the chance to do something else.
"There are all sorts of benefits, it raises their interest and it also takes a pupil who was disaffected out of a class and leaves behind those who are interested in the subject."
Mr Loveday also puts the schoo'ls league table success down to working with employers to identify what skills are needed by the local economy and raising pupils expectations about what life holds in store for them after their GCSEs.
He said: "In Grimethorpe there is a shortage of people in the caring profession, so we have courses where our pupils can train for this and we have our own nursery where children can get vocational experience."
Just over a fifth of last year's GCSE students achieved five A* to C GCSE grades, including English and maths while 69 per cent achieved five good GCSEs overall.
Although the school's GCSE results are still among the worst 200 in the country, headteacher Mr Loveday said the school had seen major improvements in the past decade.
He said: "We have quite dramatically reduced the number of people who people who are not in education, employment or training once they leave school.
"In 1998 just 11 per cent of pupils achieved five good GCSEs. Now it is 69 per cent, which is fantastic. Results day is now part of the calendar for the local community.
"It is almost like Rio de Janiero here when the results arrive because the community now really does think we are doing well.
"It is great because Grimethorpe has never been top of anything before now."
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