Shropshire celebrates best-ever GCSE exam results

Thursday 26th January 2012, 11:00AM GMT.

Shropshire schools were today celebrating another record in the number of pupils achieving the top GCSE grades – while national figures showed thousands of teenagers are still failing to get good results after being let down by under-performing schools.

More children are getting the top grades of A*-C, including maths and English, with the county seeing its best-ever GCSE results in 2011.

The Department for Education tables, released today, show that 59.9 per cent of county pupils achieved five or more of the top grades, including in English and maths – compared to the national figure of 58.2 per cent.

Telford schools, which saw 58 per cent of pupils getting five or more A*-C grades, including English and maths, are among the most rapidly improving in the country.

But national figures show 107 secondary schools in England, including Telford’s Sutherland Business College, did not reach government targets and less than 35 per cent of pupils got at least five C grades at GCSE, including English and maths.

The Corbet School, in Baschurch, saw some of the most improved results in Shropshire, with 73 per cent of its pupils getting five or more A*-C grades, including English and maths, in 2011, up from 59 per cent.

A number of county state schools, including Newport Girls’ High, Adams’ Grammar School, Newport, and Thomas Telford School – were among the top 200 performers nationally at GCSE.

Newport Girls High and the William Brookes School, in Much Wenlock, were among the top 200 schools for A-Level results.

For the first time a value added rating has been produced, showing the most effective schools at helping children make progress over their whole secondary school careers from ages 11-16. Among the top 200 are Telford’s Thomas Telford and Abraham Darby schools.

See the full set of league tables in today’s Shropshire Star

View more: Education news, Gcse news, School news.

1
Fred

January 26, 2012 at 13:01

What’s this, best ever results for the 29th or 30th year in a row? How can they not be getting easier especially given employers repeatedly comment that so many know little that transfers to the world of work, can’t add up or spell and so why few of them get jobs? Get back to teaching the 3 R’s…

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- John Howard
  
  January 26, 2012 at 17:01
  
  With an ever increasing number of evidently highly qualified and intelligent youngsters emerging from those bastions of academia our troubles are surely over. No doubt in a few years the universities will be bulging at the seams and will have to come up with a new degree classification higher than a first to match their excellence. We’ll be up to our necks in Nobel Prize winning physicists and have doctors, lawyers and other top professionals on every corner. I believe this because I read of this advance every year in the Shropshire Star. But for now I’ll just marvel at the improvement in spelling in the graffiti in our bus shelter.
  
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  - Katherine de Gama
    
    January 30, 2012 at 01:05
    
    What nonsense – from a former university lecturer whose colleagues and friends are international stars
    
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    - spencer
      
      January 30, 2012 at 10:29
      
      He’s got a point Katherine. GCSE records have been broken for the last ten years, where are these people. Please explain the nonsense in Johns’ comment.
      
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- JOHN JONES
  
  January 27, 2012 at 18:27
  
  Fred, Spot on.
  
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2
Port Hill Boy

January 26, 2012 at 14:21

What’s of interest is that in the overwhelming majority of Shropshire schools the Value Added is less than 1000 i.e. children have actually gone backwards since moving from primary school.

Yet again the Star seems mor intent on painting a rosy picture than looking at reality.

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3
Wayne

January 26, 2012 at 15:08

How come there are so may stupid, thick teenagers about if GCSE results are supposed to be “better than ever” nowadays?
Doesn’t make sense to me at all.

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- towbar
  
  January 27, 2012 at 20:12
  
  Simples !!! The examinations have been dumbed down so much that being capable of working out how many beans make 5 without a calculator guarantees an A grade Mathematics pass.Likewise being able to spell any word with more than three letters guarantees an A++++ in English Language.
  
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- helen
  
  January 28, 2012 at 12:36
  
  Wayne-
  
  If you are arguing that exams now are easier than they used to be why not just say that instead of having a go at teenagers? It’s really sad that so often the word ‘teenager’ seems interchangeable with ‘yob’ for some. The teenagers I know are, on the whole, lovely kids who work hard. There are a few who aren’t, but I know a few adults of all ages who aren’t much to write home about either- funnily enough, they don’t seem to attract the same kind of cliched flack, though.
  
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4
jane williamson

January 26, 2012 at 15:13

Yet the School the Star reports as failing has one of the highest Value Added and this must be taken into consideration when reporting

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5
Jane

January 26, 2012 at 15:41

No, they have not gone backwards. They have not made the same progression through secondary school as they made in primary school. This is quite normal. A lot of this is down to pressures of growing up and pressures of examinations which they do not have at primary school. We are very lucky to have such excellent schools in Shropshire, and its a shame that people have to put them down all the time, rather than appreciating that our young people are some of the best educated in the country.

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- Port Hill Boy
  
  January 27, 2012 at 13:09
  
  Any school that scores 1000 or less is regarded as underperformimg.
  In Shropshire just 4 schools achieved this whilst 18 fell short.
  
  Schools are failing our children and it is disappointing that the Star tries to sweep this under the carpet.
  
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6
Grim Reaper

January 26, 2012 at 16:16

Yet another record in educational achievement?! Er, I don’t think so. One wonders how many of these intellectual geniuses have been primed by their teachers as to the questions they will be answering, been allowed to submit coursework – so ludicrously easy in its content that it doesn’t even merit the name, towards their overall grade award? No-one believes the continued rise in educational standards. It is an utter fraud.

The examinations have become easier and easier over the last years to disguise the repeated dunbing down of educational standards and the failings of our state educational system. Teachers are afraid to speak out and say what is really going on in our state secondaries.

The league tables mentioned in the article are utterly meaningless. And instead of addressing the real issues of indiscipline, children out of control because of lack of parental supervision or role models, and ever increasing class sizes, what do those in the grandly named Senior Management Teams in the schools here in Shropshire who could and should be addressing these issues do? Attend meetings to decide on what should constitute “… the school’s new Mission Statement”..

And if the children mentioned in the article are doing so well why is it that they cannot spell or undertake the most basic of mathematical calculations? I gave a lad in one of the supermarkets here a £5-00 note for a couple of items which in total cost £1-80. The “change” calculator on his till wasn’t working. He could not subtract £1-80 from £5-00. No doubt he achieved an A* for his maths.

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- pete
  
  January 26, 2012 at 18:33
  
  I just like to add that a chap called Ed Balls the former education secretary was asked if he knew what a compound complex was by an english examiner and confused this english question with maths live on radio 2 , given such leadership is it any wonder such criticisms exist in state education.
  
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  - Stephen
    
    January 27, 2012 at 09:19
    
    I’d never heard of a ‘compound complex’; I’ve read many, many thousands of books and I made a living out of writing for 20 years; my grammar is impeccable, when I desire it to be, and I can even use and explain the subjunctive. So, Ed Balls may not be such an illiterate chump as you claim. Incidentally, I have often had people try to correct my English, removing ‘split infinitives’ and commas before ‘and’(see above), by people who were taught Latin-derived, Victorian grammar of the sort that is utterly foreign to English and utterly foreign to common sense. I imagine that their teachers also invented these ‘complexes’; how they must have hated children!
    
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    - Grim Reaper
      
      January 27, 2012 at 14:14
      
      Stephen, I believe the “jury” is split over the merits or use of what is called the Oxford comma!
      
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7
Brimondo

January 26, 2012 at 18:54

Is it my imagination, or was it not revealed last year, that exam boards had been caught making the exams easier to win business? Whilst i accept there will always be some very bright kids out there, boosting the figures, there must be a massive drag factor from the all too common, grunting, low trouser wearing, neanderthals that inhabit the majority of schools.

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8
Mat

January 27, 2012 at 11:12

Well done to the Wakeman School pupil’s and staff for getting such great results in a challenging year. It is a travesty that the school is closing when there is success such as this compared to others around.

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- helen
  
  January 28, 2012 at 12:51
  
  Mat-
  
  I agree and I’d like to add that, although there is no way of measuring it, it would be interesting to know how much the grades of the children displaced by the closure suffer as a result of being caught up in this mess. Regardless of how supportive The Wakeman staff have been, and how supportive the receiving schools are, starting a new school and GCSE courses at the same time is a lot to ask after such a difficult and unsettled time. For many of these children results must surely be affected- not that it seems to matter much to those in charge at Shropshire Council.
  
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9
PopEye

January 27, 2012 at 11:58

My child’s school is near the bottom of the league tables. I cannot find an obvious reason for this. What are the better performing schools doing that others are not? Why can’t schools share their best practices in order to help all children. Please can someone focus on this instead generalising. Something urgently needs to be done to improve the situation at my child’s school. Lets not consign some very able kids to the back of the dole queue because they have the unfortunate luck to reside in the catchment area of an underperforming school!!

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- Grim Reaper
  
  January 27, 2012 at 14:10
  
  What the allegedly better performing schools are doing PopEye is when they are subjected to OFSTED inspections excluding (by sending out on Field Trips and similar) disruptive and unruly pupils, by “giving” examination candidates the questions they will be sitting. There has been coverage of this very topic in the press recently, where examiners were telling teachers what questions to expect. The government tried to pretend this was only done by a few rogue examiners. That is not the case, but nobody in this country wants to admit (parents included) that the state educational system has been failing successive generations of children for years.
  
  It is not that your child’s/children’s school is performing any less well. It is probably that the school in question is perhaps somewhat more honest in its dealings with its pupils, rather than making them all think they are all potential Einsteins and worthy of a place at Oxford or Cambridge – when most of them of course are not.
  
  As for the league tables, they are utterly meaningless – based on a small snapshot when the school is inspected. Some classes do not even receive a visit during the course of an inspection and here is the real nub; who are those carrying out the OFSTED inspections and deciding whether a school is performing well or underperforming? In the main they are failed teachers who couldn’t teach a class (of whatever age or ability) if their very lives depended on it.
  
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  - OhGodNot Again
    
    January 27, 2012 at 17:58
    
    It must indeed be “grim” being you Mr Reaper. The league tables are NOT related to Ofsted inspections, rather a series of different bits of data over the course of a year. You’re getting your rants confused.
    The notion of schools sending the naughty ones out and of examiners telling the teachers the questions are the unfortunate exception to a huge amount of hard work and dedication shown by the vast majority of teachers and support staff. It’s a shame that the occasional bad apples give people like you the opportunity to grind your sad little axe. But hey, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good, one eyed rant!!
    
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10
Squire

January 27, 2012 at 13:11

Exams r not getting easier innit, Stop avin a go at us just cos we are gettin better results than you did. I tryed proper hard to get an A at english and dezerve my grade bruv.

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11
saveiftonheath

January 27, 2012 at 20:22

No mention of Rhyn Park in this report! No doubt due to their fall in 5 A C’s from 49% to 35%. This information was not released before our delightful council decided to close Ifton and Merge or be absorbed by Rhyn Park. Some governors at Rhyn Park were quick to point out that as their school was GOOD and that Ifton was SATISFACTORY they could raise their results! Don’t think they can say that now! They spent over £7000 per pupil compared to Lakelands who spent just over £5000 and did far better. No wonder everyone at Ifton has fought this insane merger! The council just want a quick fix to cover their incompetance and poor management of Rhyn Park

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- helen
  
  January 28, 2012 at 14:08
  
  saveiftonheath-
  
  The trouble is, Shropshire Council didn’t provide a level playing field for schools in its ‘restructure’. For Rhyn Park, a ‘Good’ Ofsted was one of the oft-stated reasons for keeping it open, and falling exam results made no difference. For Wakeman, a ‘Good’ Ofsted and rising exam results still meant it should close. For some schools, high surplus places was the only reason for closure, for Ifton Heath, low surplus places made no difference. The lack of consistency and fairness is very difficult to accept and lots of us affected by the council’s decisions feel very angry. The sooner this lot is voted out the better.
  
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  - saveiftonheath
    
    January 30, 2012 at 14:03
    
    Could not agree more. Double standards from the council, as they just pick and choose reasons to keep open/close either school. The reason why they are shutting down Wakeman is they can sell the land, something they cannot do with Rhyn Park. So David Taylor says they are “safeguarding” Rhyn Park, which is not the case as they could never close it as there is nowhere to send those pupils. It is much easier for this disgraceful council to shut Ifton ( 3 years short of its centenary) and plough their budget into debt ridden Rhyn Park to cover their losses. Unfortunately for thr Wakeman they can move the pupils so it shuts regardless of any achievements. All this and the council still will not try and get the funding this county is entitled too. Vote them out but unfortunately this abysmal council will have done damage that will remain for many years.
    
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12
nova brugo

January 29, 2012 at 21:31

just more proof that the newport has to be one of the best places in the country to be educated, with the girls high & adams grammar both out preforming most other schools

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13
Katherine de Gama

January 30, 2012 at 01:27

Let us congratulate those young people. I would hate to sit those exams again

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14
Nistagmus

January 30, 2012 at 08:54

Goodhart’s Law

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