5:03pm Wednesday 13th January 2010
By Oliver Evans
MOST south Buckinghamshire secondary schools have improved a key GCSE score with some notching up major leaps in performance.
Of the 21 schools, ten improved the number of pupils who got five GCSEs grades A* to C including English and maths between 2008 and 2009.
Three stayed the same, grammars at or near the 100 per cent mark, while eight fell.
Overall, the county’s score rose from 63.4 per cent to 65.4 per cent between 2008 and 2009. And this was up from 59.1 per cent in 2006.
All are well above the national England average of 50.7 per cent. It ranks the county fifth highest out of 161 council areas.
Click the link at the bottom of this story to see scores for each school. Leaps in grades included 42 to 52 at Princes Risborough School and 35 to 49 at Wye Valley School, Bourne End.
Other increase include: Amersham School (48 to 56), Chesham Park Community College (30 to 37) and High Wycombe’s Highcrest Community School (35 to 37).
The latter has continued to improve grades from 23 per cent in 2006. The former Hatters Lane School has been hailed for turning around poor grades.
It had fallen under a controversial Government ‘National Challenge’ scheme which threatened closure for schools under 30 per cent.
Yet the town’s Cressex Community School dropped from 31 to 25 per cent last year. It was this afternoon unavailable for comment.
Sir William Ramsay School in Hazlemere fell from 47 to 44 per cent, St Bernard’s Catholic School went from 52 to 44 and The Misbourne was 56 to 51.
Some results were released when students got their GCSE results in August yet today’s figures are the final official record.
Buckinghamshire County Council education boss Councillor Marion Clayton was this afternoon unavailable for comment.
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker said today “Thanks to record investment in teachers and schools, coupled with the hard work of pupils, teachers and schools, the improvement in standards means since 1997, over 600,000 more students have left school with at least five good GCSEs.”
But shadow children's secretary, Michael Gove said: "We want to close the educational gap between the fortunate few and the rest.
“That's why we've outlined plans to improve the quality of teaching, give heads proper powers to crack down on bad behaviour and allow educational providers to open a new generation of independently run state schools with the characteristics that parents want, like smaller class sizes.”
Click the link below for more Bucks Free Press education stories.
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