Secondary School league tables: How did Yorkshire do?


One in eight of England’s mainstream secondaries - 365 in total - fell below the Government’s minimum standards in 2017, according to new statistics.
This is up from 282 schools, just under one in 10 - the year before.
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Hide AdAccording to analysis of the data, it means 260,783 schoolchildren are now being taught at underperforming secondaries - about 8.6 per cent, compared to 206,991 - 6.8 per cent in 2016.
In Yorkshire 22 schools fell below the floor target, which equates to 7.6 per cent of secondaries in the region. This is down from last year’s eight per cent.
The highest proportion of underperforming schools were in Doncaster with three schools - 18.8 per cent of its total - however, there were none in Barnsley, Rotherham and York.
Damian Allen, director of people at Doncaster Council, said its scores have fallen less than those at a national and regional level.
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Hide AdHe said: “As a council we are committed to improving outcomes for all our children and these results, although not where we want them to be, reflect an improving picture.”
Schools fall below the Government’s performance threshold if pupils fail to make enough progress across eight subjects, with particular weight given to English and maths.
The Department for Education (DfE) said the rise in underperforming schools is because of technical changes to the points system used by government statisticians to calculate a school’s performance.
The national rise comes amid major changes to England’s exams system, including the introduction of a new grading system, which has meant the data includes English and maths GCSE results awarded new 9-1 grades while other subjects received traditional A*-G grades.
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Hide AdSchool leaders said the new grading system affecting English and maths has complicated the way school performance is calculated, as it has to be worked out using a combination of old and new grading systems.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “As the DfE itself says in today’s statistics, these changes are the main reason why there has been an increase in the number of schools which are deemed to be below the ‘floor standard’ for Progress 8.
“It is extremely unfair that more schools find themselves in this situation because of complex changes to the way in which this is calculated.
“Our message to the DfE, trust boards, governors and inspectors is to avoid leaping to judgement on the basis of these performance tables. They only tell us a limited amount about the true quality of a school.”
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Hide AdSchools are judged against a measure called Progress 8 which looks at the progress a pupil has made between the end of primary and the end of secondary school, and their results across eight GCSEs compared to their achievement of other youngsters with similar abilities.
A secondary is considered to be below the government’s floor standard if, on average, pupils score half a grade less (-0.5) across eight GCSEs than they would have been expected to compared to pupils of similar abilities nationally.
The DfE insisted that where schools have fallen below the floor standard, the data is “a starting point for a conversation about school improvement.”
Schools Minister Nick Gibb highlighted a narrowing gulf between the results of rich and poor pupils.
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Hide Ad“The attainment gap between the most disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed by 10 per cent since 2011 and more disadvantaged pupils are studying the core academic subjects, ensuring they have the knowledge and skills they need to make the most of their lives,” he said.
How did Yorkshire perform?
Yorkshire was above the national average on Progress 8 with a score of 0.03 compared to -0.03.
On the percentage of pupils who achieved grade 5 or above in the 2017 reformed English and maths GCSEs, the Yorkshire average was 45.4 per cent, which is above the national average of 42.6 per cent.
Reformed GCSEs are graded 1 (low) to 9 (high). Grade 5 in the new grading is a similar level of achievement to a high grade C or low grade B in the old grading.
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Hide AdOn the measure of Attainment 8, Yorkshire scored an average of 45.4 which is below the national average of 46.3.
North Yorkshire is above the national average for both progress and attainment, ranking it first in the region.
The 22 state-funded mainstream secondary schools in Yorkshire that did not meet the Government's floor standard for performance in 2017:
Queensbury School, Bradford
Hanson School, Bradford
Balby Carr Community Academy, Doncaster
Trinity Academy, Doncaster
Ormiston Maritime Academy, Grimsby
Park Lane Learning Trust, Halifax
Almondbury Community School, Huddersfield
Royds Hall Community School, Huddersfield
Hull College, Kingston-upon-Hull
Leeds City College, Leeds
Swallow Hill Community College, Leeds
The Market Weighton School, Market Weighton
Mexborough Academy, Mexborough
The Freeston Academy, Normanton
Hemsworth Arts and Community Academy, Pontefract
Pudsey Grangefield School, Pudsey
Graham School, Scarborough
George Pindar School, Scarborough
Yewlands Academy, Sheffield
Bradfield School, Sheffield
UTC Sheffield, Sheffield
Chaucer School, Sheffield
The top-performing state-funded mainstream secondary schools from each of the 15 local education authorities area in Yorkshire:
Outwood Academy Carlton, Barnsley
Dixons Trinity Academy, Bradford
Trinity Academy Halifax, Calderdale
Rossington All Saints Academy, Doncaster
Bridlington School, East Riding of Yorkshire
St Mary's College, Hull
BBG Academy, Kirklees
Rodillian Academy, Leeds
Humberston Academy, North East Lincolnshire
South Axeholme Academy, North Lincolnshire
Skipton Girls High School, North Yorkshire
Wickersley School and Sports College, Rotherham
Sheffield Park Academy, Sheffield
Castleford Academy, Wakefield
Archbishop Holgate's School, York
For more on secondary school performance in Leeds visit our sister title the Yorkshire Evening Post here