Teachers and pupils praised after latest school league tables (From Worcester News)

Teachers and pupils praised after latest school league tables

8:00am Thursday 15th January 2009 in Search By David Paine , @davidpaineWN #worcsnews

SCHOOLS have praised the hard work of students and teachers after the latest GCSE league tables showed that performances are improving.

The top-performing state school in south Worcestershire which had provided figures was the Chantry High School at Martley, 91 per cent of whose pupils scored five or more A*-C grades, up 23 per cent on the previous year’s results. As a result it was on the list of the top 100 schools in the country which had improved the most.

Headteacher Stephen Jowett said: “Obviously everybody is really thrilled and really pleased, from the students and parents of last year’s year 11 all the way through to the teachers who spent every day with the children, and myself and the governors at the school.

“What I tried to do when I came here in September 2007 was to say to the children, ‘You’re a good set of students capable of really good results but let’s aim for better than that, let’s push the boundaries’.”

Mr Jowett said treating the students like adults and giving them regular feedback on how they were performing as individuals were also factors in the school’s success.

In Worcester, Nunnery Wood High School also made the top 100 most improved schools list, recording that 73 per cent of its pupils left with at least five A*-C GCSEs.

Elsewhere in the city, Bishop Perowne CE College got 62 per cent, Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College 73 per cent, down seven per cent on the previous year, and Christopher Whitehead Language College 63 per cent.

Elgar Technology College in Bilford Road, Worcester, scored 42 per cent, which executive headteacher David Seddon said was the school’s best result.

“If you look at the results for five GCSEs that has gone up 20 odd per cent in the last two years,” he said.

“All of those children might not have English and maths, but they will more than likely have English, and those are five GCSEs that will help them.”

Mr Seddon said he was focusing on the positives given the school’s troubled background – it has been put under special measures – and some pupils had achieved more than was expected. However, he said he was not hiding from the fact that its overall figures were well below the local and national average.

“The school has got a long way to go,” he said.

Private schools in the city also enjoyed success, with King’s notching 94 per cent, St Mary’s Convent School 94, and RGS Worcester and the Alice Ottley School 98.