Best in region: Sense of achievement in classes judged to be failing a year ago

The league tables mark a major turn around in fortunes for one Yorkshire school which was classed as failing this time last year.

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LEAGUE TABLES IN FULL

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Scalby School, in Scarborough, has now been named as the best in the region at ensuring pupils fulfill their potential.

It has finished top in a league table measuring Yorkshire schools' contextual value-added (CVA) score. The CVA tables aim to show how much impact a school has had on their pupil's education by measuring their GCSE results against pupils from similar backgrounds and from their own test scores earlier on in their school life.

Some teachers claim it is the most meaningful measure produced by the Government statistics because it takes into account the ability of each school's pupils. The coalition Government is planning to scrap it, however, because they say it is difficult for the public to understand.

This year's GCSEs gave Scalby the best CVA score in the region and the 18th best in the country. Assistant headteacher Barry Evans praised staff and students for a "tremendous" achievement.

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"We relentlessly strive to encourage every student to achieve and some students have had to overcome a number of barriers to their achievement.

"The CVA measure takes into account prior performance and factors that are known to affect achievement such as whether students have free school meals, a special educational need, their age and ethnicity and any factors of social deprivation."

Headteacher David Read said: "We feel CVA is a measure of the inclusivity of a school and how well students are served, whatever their background or need."

The results mark the end of a successful 2010 for Scalby which was rated by Ofsted as being good in March in an inspection report which brought the school out of special measures. It was judged to be failing in an earlier inspection in 2008. The school puts its success down to a "students first" approach which has seen it tailor and personalise its curriculum to meet the needs of individual pupils.

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Mr Read added: "I am immensely proud of our best-ever examination results and would like to thank students, staff, parents and governors for their hard work and dedication which made 2010 such a great year for Scalby School".

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