'Flagship' academies in region are failing thousands of pupils

MORE than 3,000 16-year-olds have left academies since they were established in Yorkshire without grasping the basics at GCSE in spite of more than £400m being poured into the Government's flagship programme in the region.

Analysis into the performance of the region's academies by the Yorkshire Post has revealed that in each of the past two years more than 1,000 pupils have finished school without achieving five good GCSEs, including English and maths.

The majority of Yorkshire's academies are also still failing to meet the Government's minimum GCSE target of getting at least 30 per cent of pupils to reach this standard.

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But academy leaders defended their performance so far and claimed they are transforming education for young people in some of the region's most deprived communities.

Academies were launched in 2000 to raise standards by replacing struggling secondaries with new schools run independently and backed by a private sponsor. There are now 22 in the region although only 12 have delivered GCSE results so far.

All 12 have improved on GCSE results of their predecessor schools. Many academy principals said they were confident of beating the Government's 30 per cent target this year.

Ros McMullen, the principal of David Young Community Academy in Leeds – one of only two academies in Yorkshire to be rated as a good school by Ofsted – said: "Having independence allowed me to have a different school year, different timetable and a different structure from day one."

Principal of Bradford Academy Gareth Dawkins said the ten-fold increase in the number of sixth-form students at his school was a sign of the impact it was having on its community.