Swindon’s secondary schools are still improving, according to the latest performance tables out today.
The tables, which are published by the Department for Education, show that most of the borough’s secondary schools have improved on the previous year’s GCSE results, while some have made huge progress.
A total of 52% of students gained five or more A* - C grades in all subjects, including English and maths – an increase of two percentage points on last year’s results.
The number of students gaining five or more A* - C grades in all subjects is up by four percentage points from a year ago.
Around 2,000 students from ten secondary schools received their GCSE results (or equivalent) in August last year.
Results were up in all key indicators, apart from English, where results stayed the same, while the results for the new English Baccalaureate improved by two percentage points.
All students achieved at least one qualification, which for the second year running ranks the borough in the top five in the country for pupils achieving any passes.
The average points score for pupils has risen 28 points from 428 points in 2010 to 456 points in 2011.
Some schools in the borough saw their results in the key performance indicator improve dramatically from last year: Churchfields Academy continues to improve, with the number of pupils achieving five or more A* - C grades including maths and English increasing from 42% to 48%.
Kingsdown saw the largest increase, with 57% of pupils achieving five or more A* - C grades including maths and English, up nine percentage points. Greendown (53%) and Swindon Academy (37%) saw increases of eight and five percentage points respectively. Results at Commonweal, Ridgeway and Highworth Warneford continue to place these schools above the national average.
Cllr David Renard, Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for Children’s Services said: “These results demonstrate that our secondary schools continue to deliver higher standards year on year and I want to thank them for their hard work.
“I also want to congratulate all of our young people on their achievements which should stand them in good stead for their next challenges. These improvements show that Swindon has a good educational offer and the results give us further reasons to be optimistic about the future.”