Schools ranked by current league table for the last time

Schools in England are being judged on the basis of raw GCSE results for the last time, signalling a change in school league tables in their present form.

Next year, schools will be measured on a broader range of results across eight subjects. The ‘Progress 8’ measure is designed to encourage schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum at KS4, and reward schools for the teaching of all their pupils.

Other headline measures of performance will include ‘Attainment 8’, showing pupils’ average achievement; the EBacc, showing the percentage of pupils achieving good grades across a range of academic subjects, and a percentage of pupils achieving a C grade or better in both English and maths.

Headteachers are welcoming the changes which mean schools will be measured on a broader set of results with more sophisticated measures of progress and attainment across eight subjects, with five of the eight to be the new EBacc core of English, maths, sciences, languages and history or geography.

The figures released on Thursday by the Department for Education showed a slight improvement in the GCSE pass rate, with 57.1% of pupils at state schools achieving five passes of grade C or higher, including English and maths, compared with 56.6% in 2014.

Liverpool City Region – GCSE pass rate (% achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) including English and Maths

Liverpool 48.6%
St Helens 54.7%
Wirral 61.8%
Halton 56.9%
Knowsley 37.4%

Rainford High Technology College, in St Helens performed strongly, as evidenced by the schools standing in the league tables.

With 79% of children achieving 5 A*-C grades, including maths and English, the school surpasses both the borough and national average.

Principle Ian Young believes it is its ethos of ‘Everyone Matters, Everyone Helps and Everyone Succeeds’ which underpins its result on the league table for 2015.

Although this is the last year the results will be delivered in this way, he says as a school it will continue to focus on delivering an excellent education for all students, and welcomes the new Progress 8 measures.

He says: “We are delighted that the league tables highlight the success and hard work of the students and staff at Rainford High.

“The new Progress 8 measure will take some time for parents to get used to and be more complicated to understand but will show how much value is added to students learning once they have arrived from primary school.

“As a Principal I am delighted that the focus will be on the progress the students have made across a wide range of subjects and this will support the need for students to have success across a broad and balanced curriculum. The Progress 8 measure will support our continued focus on every student achieving their maximum at Rainford High, where we strive to fulfil our ethos of Everyone Matters, Everyone Helps and Everyone Succeeds.”