danger of comparisons highlighted
THE headteacher of a school below the national floor target said it was unfair to compare her pupils’ performance to those of high-attaining secondaries.
City of Leeds School saw just 26 per cent of pupils get five good GCSEs including English and maths.
Headteacher Georgie Sale said: “We have 85 per cent of pupils who have English as an additional language, 50 per cent are from Gypsy Roma backgrounds, 60 per cent have been living in the UK for four years or less and some will join us at 15.
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Hide Ad“Conventional wisdom says it can take five years to be able to learn a language to a basic level never mind the level needed to pass a GCSE.
Ms Sale added: “We do reach or get close to national targets in maths and science but our school has a bottleneck with pupils who are very new to the English language.”