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Cornish schools GCSE achievements

From the Falmouth Packet, first published Saturday 12th Jan 2008.

Cornish secondary schools have come out with flying colours in the latest GCSE league tables from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The tables look at the Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 Contextual Added Value results, which measures the improvement students make from the 11 years of age until their GCSEs, rather than their raw results.

For one school it was particularly encouraging. Truro School was ranked 186 in the whole country in the GCSE league table with 98 per cent of its pupils gaining AQ* to C grades and was first within Cornwall. Truro High School was in second place the Duchy with 98 per cent.

Seven Cornish schools in total had a five grade A*-C GCSE success rate of 60 per cent. In the county the average was 44 per cent, which is, however, below the national average.

Paul Smith, Truro School's head said he was delighted to be in the top 200 schools for our GCSE results but had some reservation about the value of league tables.

"Last summer's Year 11 students have done the school proud in their GCSE results. They put the school in 4th place for the South West as well as top in Cornwall," he said. "The schools ahead of us are the academic 'big guns' like the Maynard School in Exeter, Torquay Boys' Grammar and Colyton Grammar School, a couple of which are in the top dozen nationally for GCSEs. I am very pleased to hear that the school is one of only five in the South West that are ranked in the top 200 in the country."

Rankings of schools can be deceptive and dependent on the number of pupils involved. In percentage terms in Camborne Community College 37 per cent of pupils achieved five grade A* to C grades, while Falmouth School achieved 43 per cent, Helston Community College, 44 per cent, while Mullion had 55 per cent.

At Penair in Truro 63 per cent of pupils achieved A* to C grade, while Penryn College came in with 40 per cent, Pool Community College, 34 per cent, Redruth School, 33 per cent, Richard Lander, 50 per cent and Roseland Community School also 50 per cent.

The placings do not give a full picture of the achievements of the respective schools, many of which specialise in certain subjects. Pupils numbers also vary considerable from school to school.

Countrywide 60.8% of 15-year-olds achieved five higher level GCSEs or equivalent meeting the Government's target a year early, 46% of 15-year-olds achieved five higher level GCSEs or equivalent including English and maths (up 0.7 percentage points (ppts) on last year and 10.4 ppts since 1997) and there was a significant drop in the proportion of schools with less than 30% of their pupils getting five higher level GCSEs or equivalent including English and maths (down to 639 from 1,610 in 1997 and 789 last year).

A more detailed account of the schools' achievements can be found by clicking on to the link below and going to schools where all those in the Duchy are listed.

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