Michael Edwards
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Feed
RSS FeedDoubling the rate of attainment
It's a sign of the times that I now show more interest in the GCSE grades of the pupils at the comprehensive secondary school that I chair, than I ever did for my own O-levels.
Back in the late seventies, you'd wait a day (yes, a whole day) for the results to posted on to you by the school using the postcard you'd set out.
One lad actually went into to school to get his results - very strange - although now I think about it, he did go on to be head boy.
The culture is so different now, which is part of the reason for progress.
My school probably serves the most challenged cohort in the East Midlands. And today, 48% of its year 11 achieved 5 good GCSEs. Up from 32% last year, 22% the year before, and not many years on since only 7% or so did. So over double the rate of attainment in just 2 years. (And it was a pleasure to see pupils from the school featured on regional ITV in the evening.)
And for the first time, over half of Nottingham schools' year 11 have achieved 5 good GCSEs.
A different culture concerning attainment is part of the reason for progress, but other reasons include a focus on improvement, in the quality of teaching, learning, leadership and management. And we'd have gone nowhere without the extra resources in Nottingham, made possible by the Labour government. Huge increases in revenue spending and something like 40 times the amount of capital for improvements and repairs (and that's before you start counting school replacement and renewal programmes like Building Schools for the Future & the new Academies).
Under the Tories, we were going nowhere, despite all the revenues from oil. Annual cuts in staff and moving money away from the children who needed help most.
Britain in the near future will only have 500,000 unskilled jobs. And we needed to ensure our most needy kids get a better chance to achieve in life.
So, a day to be proud of what our children and schools have achieved, and of what Labour in government, national & local, has done for the country.