Under a new national scoring system called ‘Progress 8’, showing how much progress pupils made across eight subjects from the end of primary school (key stage two) to the end of secondary school (key stage four) compared to pupils across England, the Weybourne Road Catholic school’s score of 0.83 was beaten only in Surrey by St Andrew’s Catholic School in Leatherhead (0.88), and St John the Baptist Comprehensive in Woking (1.11).
Of Farnham’s two other state secondaries, Weydon scored an “average” ‘Progress 8’ score of 0.16 to rank 23rd in Surrey, while Heath End School scored a “below average” -0.35 to rank 50th.
The new scoring system, which also gives results for ‘Attainment 8’ based on how well pupils have performed in up to eight qualifications, replaces the old system where schools and academies were judged according to what ratio of pupils achieved five A* to Cs.
All Hallows was also the best placed school in Farnham for ‘Attainment 8’, scoring 58.3 to Weydon’s 55.2 and Heath End’s 45.1, as well as for the percentage of pupils achieving grade five or above in English and maths at GCSE, at 65 per cent compared to Weydon’s 63 per cent and Heath End’s 42 per cent.
The new rankings also reveal that in 2015, 97 per cent of pupils at All Hallows and Weydon either stayed in education or entered employment after leaving year 11, compared to 92 per cent at Heath End.
It comes after Heath End welcomed a new headteacher, former Weydon co-principal Stuart Maginnis, at the beginning of January, promising to tackle the school’s “poor” exam results and set students on the “road to great”.
For a full breakdown of GCSE results and how your child’s school ranks, visit the website www.compare-school-performance.ser
vice.gov.uk .
• Weydon School’s teacher training arm Teach@Weydon School-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) Partnership has been handed an overall “good” rating by Ofsted.
Government inspectors visited the partnership twice last year, in July and December, and in their report praised the quality of leadership and management as “outstanding” and the outcome for trainees and quality of teaching as “good”, resulting in an overall second-highest “good” rating.
The inspectors observed: “The Teach@Weydon partnership was founded to provide a regular supply of high-quality teachers for the locality.
“Teacher recruitment in this area is exceptionally difficult due to the very high cost of housing.
“The partnership is making a strong contribution to meeting the employment needs of secondary schools in the area.”
Read the report in full online at reports.ofsted.gov.uk.