More East Lancashire teens ‘making grade in maths and English’ (From Lancashire Telegraph)

More East Lancashire teens ‘making grade in maths and English’

9:30am Thursday 26th January 2012 in GCSE results By Nafeesa Shan, Reporter

HIGH ACHIEVERS St Wilfrid’s CE Academy, Blackburn, head boy Tom Wilkinson celebrates the league table results with other students

MORE teenagers are leaving East Lancashire high schools with top GCSE grades that include vital English and maths qualifications.

According to figures released by the Department for Education today, the area’s youngsters have improved their overall 5A*-C pass rates as well as results including the two core subjects.

Again, Clitheroe Royal Grammar School and Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar were top in the area with 99 per cent of students passing with English and maths.

Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar headteacher Alan Porteous said: “This sustained record of outstanding achievement is a reflection of the hard work of the young people and their teachers and they thoroughly deserve this high level of success.”

The schools were placed in the top 200 in the country.

The highest-performing mainstream schools in the area were Tauheedul, where 96 per cent of students gained 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and maths and St Christopher’s CofE High School, Accrington, at 79 per cent.

St Christopher’s deputy headteacher Richard Jones said: “We are delighted with the set of results in 2011. The results are a testament to the hard work of teachers and pupils at St Christopher’s.

“The secret ingredient is that we are a happy school.”

Tauheedul and Haslingden High School were in the top 100 in the country for the value added to pupils that is outside the academic setting.

Shuttleworth College was in the bottom 100 for value added.

However, Shuttleworth College made the biggest improvement in East Lancashire as its pass rates shot up by 17 per cent.

In Blackburn with Darwen, Blakewater College and Pleckgate High School Maths and Computing College saw jumps of 10 per cent.

Pleckgate High School Maths and Computing College headteacher Robin Campbell said: “We were obviously delighted with the outcomes both for individual pupils but also on a whole school basis.

The 10 per cent increase reflected the outstanding efforts put in by staff, pupils and their families. It was a real team effort and shows what can be achieved.”

Clitheroe Royal Grammar , Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar and Tauheedul Islam Girls High School were in the top 200 for the new English Baccalaureate measure.

The baccalaureate is a where a students gains a grade C or above in English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language.

Fearns Community College and Blakewater College were in the bottom 200 for 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and maths.

Lancashire County Councillor Keith Iddon, lead member for Children and Schools, said: “I am very pleased to see that once again Lancashire's GCSE results have continued to improve.

“In particular, we have halved the small number of schools below the target for five A*-C GCSEs including English and maths since it was raised to 35 per cent last year.

“There have been some extremely good performances both from individual schools and pupils which have exceeded expectations. More than a dozen schools have improved their performance by 10 per cent or more.

“I should like to congratulate all our students, parents and teachers on all their hard work, with results proving yet again that Lancashire's schools and pupils are among the best anywhere.”

For the performance tables see the related links section to the right of the page