100 Yorkshire schools face ‘failing’ stigma

There were more than 130 schools in the region which did not reach this standard in the latest set of school league tables – more than three times the 40 schools below the existing target.

The benchmark for all schools is increasing from 35 per cent of pupils getting five A* to C grade GCSEs, including English and maths, to 40 per cent next year and to 50 per cent by the end of this Parliament in 2015.

Schools will be classed as failing to meet the floor target if their GCSE pass rates fall below this minimum standard and the level of progress being made by pupils in English and maths does not keep up with the national average.

Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the move alongside plans to convert the country’s worst 200 performing primary schools into academies which will be run free from council control with funding direct from Government.

Critics claim the Government’s plans are failing to take account the challenges primary and secondary schools in deprived areas are facing.

A leading primary school head teacher from Leeds has warned the Government’s plan to convert primaries into academies based on their performance in league tables will add to pressure for teaching unions to return to a boycott of the Standard Assessment Tests again next year.

The head teacher of Mill Field Primary School in Leeds, Stephen Watkins, a national executive member of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) accused Mr Gove of having made his mind up over the issue of league tables before an independent review on the issue is published on Friday.

He said: “By announcing that test scores will be used to decide that 200 primaries will become academies the Government have made their intentions clear.”

The NAHT and National Union of Teachers (NUT) held a boycott last summer.

Mr Watkins warned the academy plan could trigger industrial action.

He said: “The SATS boycott was suspended this year because the Government agreed to have an independent review into the testing of primary school pupils.

“However by announcing that they will use test results to decide to turn schools into academies they are going further than ever before and it is showing that regardless of the Bew Review they intend to continue judging schools on a single measure.”

Mr Gove has said the country “should no longer tolerate a system in which so many pupils leave primary school without a good grasp of English and maths, and leave secondary school without five good GCSEs.”

An analysis of this year’s league tables, based on last summer’s GCSE results, shows that more than 130 state secondary schools across the 15 education authorities in the region saw less than half their pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths.

These schools would only be classed as failing, however, if they also failed to keep pace with the average level of improvement made by pupils from the ages of 11 to 16 in English in maths.

The new benchmark could more than double the number of failing schools in several authorities across Yorkshire.

No secondary schools in York or the East Riding fell below the 35 per cent mark in this year’s league tables, but one school in each authority fell below 40 per cent and nine in the East Riding did not achieve 50 per cent.

In Barnsley the tougher new target was only achieved by half the secondary schools in the authority while in Kirklees more than half did not achieve it.

Bradford East MP David Ward has warned that Mr Gove is in danger of ignoring the needs of inner city schools by raising secondary school targets and planning to turn what it decides are the worst 200 primary schools in the country into academies.

The Education Secretary has recently visited Bingley and Ilkley schools during a trip to the Bradford district but Mr Ward urged him to visit schools in the inner-city areas of his constituency.

“Mr Gove may think he has been to Bradford but he hasn’t. He has been to Bingley and Ilkley where children do not face the sort of issues which many of the pupils in my constituency have to face every day when they go to school.

“The pupil premium which the Government has created is all about recognising the challenges that schools teaching the poorest pupils face and yet at the same time the Government is still wanting to measure schools on pupil attainment instead of looking at what a school actually achieves with the pupils it has.”

The Liberal Democrat backbencher also questioned why the Government believes turning primary schools into academies will improve performance.

Mr Ward, who rebelled against the Government to vote against the academies Bill, said: “There is no substitute for a well resourced school with great leadership and great teaching and learning. This is what matters in a school regardless of what structure it has.”