Yorkshire schools top table for ‘getting best out of children’

The Government has created new tables which put every primary into a group of 125 and every secondary into a table of 55 schools based on pupils’ previous performance.

Schools Minister David Laws said the new tables would highlight those getting the most out of their students while leave coasting schools with “nowhere to hide.”

He has now written to ten schools across the region, eight primary and two secondary, which were ranked top in their tables to both praise them and urge them to help raise standards elsewhere.

The tables ranked primaries on pupils’ scores in standard assessment tests (Sats) done by 11-year-olds and secondaries on the number of pupils getting at least five A* to C grades, including English and maths, at GCSE.

The primary schools have been grouped together in tables based on teacher assessments of pupil ability when they were seven
years old while secondaries are grouped together based on pupils’ Sats scores just before they left primary school.

The eight primary schools which have emerged as table toppers in Yorkshire are Shirley Manor Primary in Bradford, New Road Primary in Halifax, Armthorpe Southfield Primary in Doncaster, St Anthony’s Catholic Primary and St Bartholomew’s CE Primary in Leeds, Staveley Community Primary and Masham Primary in North Yorkshire and Canklow Woods Primary in Rotherham. The two secondaries were Healing Science Academy and Tollbar Academy both in Grimsby.

The ten schools were among 105 primaries and 56 secondaries nationally which all topped their tables and received a letter of congratulations from Mr Laws.

The primary schools who received a letter were top of their “most similar” table and had 20 per cent more of their pupils achieving at least the expected level in both English and maths Sats tests when compared with a typical school with their intake.

The secondary schools praised were also number one in their table and had 10 per cent more of their pupils achieving at least five good GCSEs, including English and maths, than is typical of a school with their intake.

Mr Laws said: “For the first time this measure lets parents identify the schools that are getting the best from children – while giving coasting schools nowhere to hide.

“The schools I have written to show fantastic results can be achieved even with a challenging intake of pupils.

“I have asked them to work closely with other head teachers so every child has the chance to go to a school as good as theirs.”

Pauline Gavin, the head teacher of St Bartholomew’s in Leeds, said: “We are thrilled to get the letter because we all work so hard, the staff, pupils, parents and governors. I think it is a good way of measuring school performance by looking at those where the pupils are similar to your own.”

Parents can see how their child’s school has performed overall compared with those with similar intakes by searching on the performance section on the Department for Education website.

The latest tables are a new attempt to compare like with like.

Critics of the overall school league tables warn that they do not provide an accurate measure of how well a school performs as they are not a level playing field.

The key benchmark for all secondary schools is the level of pupils who achieve five good GCSE grades, including English and maths, regardless of overall ability.

However, the Government has consulted on changes to the way secondary schools are held accountable with the possibility of pupils being given an average score based on their performance across their best eight subjects at GCSE.