Drop in Shropshire pupils making grade in GCSEs
The number of pupils across Shropshire achieving top grades in their GCSEs fell last year, new government figures revealed today.
It comes as national figures showed tens of thousands of teenagers are still being let down by schools which are failing to ensure pupils leave with decent results.
The figures from the Department for Education showed 58.6 per cent of pupils in Shropshire gained five or more A*-C Grades in subjects including the key areas of English and maths. The pass rate in 2011 was 59.9 per cent.
Officials said they would be looking into the figures but believed they could result from last summer's row over the way some exams had been marked.
Schools claimed the boundaries between grades C and D had been unfairly moved, resulting in fewer pupils achieving top grades.
Councillor Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for education and skills, said: "We will be checking these figures but my instinct is that it could be to do with the problems with the marking of some GCSEs."
Telford & Wrekin's two grammar schools, Newport Girls High and Adams', were in the top 200 schools in the country with 100 per cent passes, along with Thomas Telford on 99 per cent.
They were joined by Shrewsbury High School, Shrewsbury School and Concord College, also in Shrewsbury, each with 98 per cent.
And pupils at Wrockwardine Wood Arts College are celebrating after being named among the most improved state schools in the country.
Sir John Talbot Technology College in Whitchurch is in the bottom 30 state schools in the country after it recorded a pass rate of 26 per cent, meaning only 28 of the 108 pupils who took the exams achieved five or more A*-C on courses including English and maths.
No one from the school was available to comment.
Last month officials at Shropshire Council stepped in to oversee the running of the school because of worries about falling standards.
The Phoenix School in Dawley, Telford, is also in the bottom 200 state schools in the country with a pass rate of 38 per cent. But the overall pass rate in Telford & Wrekin is up, from 58 per cent in 2011 to 61.3 per cent.
