New Secondary Schools for Richmond 3

[BayJay]

Hello and welcome to the Mumsnet thread about Richmond Borough Secondary Schools. The discussion started in February 2011 in two parallel locations here and here.

In November 2011 the most active of those two threads, in Mumsnet Local, reached 1000 messages (the maximum allowed) so we continued the conversation here.

Now its May 2012 and that thread has also filled up, so the conversation will continue here ......

The label "acolyte" is only offensive in the sense that its intention was to be offensive. The actual effect is laughable and once again shows Lord True to be inept.

Also, why does the council's statement say "This delay and uncertainty will also be of huge concern to a large number of parents across the borough, who have already started applying for places for their children at either of the schools"?

The admissions don't open until September 1st, and they haven't even published the admissions brochure yet. Presumably that is being hastily re-written as we speak!

The RTT report: Catholic school debate will go to the High Court

It was fantastic news about RPAs results, especially for Sheen parents, if not Twickenham parents. And in a year when achieving good results has been especially challenging. All the local schools, state and private, have been affected by the meddling with the GCSE grade boundaries and many 16 year olds in the borough are devastated by disappointing results especially in English Language and Literature, and face having their sixth form and university options limited as a result. Leeds and several other Councils are coming together to explore the possibility of challenging the results in court. Somehow I don't think Lord True will be as willing to defend the interests of our 16 year olds "vigourously" in court as he is the interests of the Catholic Church.

The GCSE results at Feltham Community College though dramatically improved were 62% A*-C compared with 82% at Twickenham Academy, undermining further the Council assumptions on out of borough students.

So will Councillor Hodgins now still keep on defending Lord True's illegal position and not send his kids to RPA? Perhaps its still not as posh as the schools Lord True sent his kids to? . True test for our Cabinet Member for schools!

Copthallresident, the 62% at Feltham Community College includes English and Maths. At Twickenham Academy their 82% was any 5 GCSEs A-C (no news on the figure including English and Maths) but to compare like with like, Feltham did even better at 92%. Got to give the amazing Mo Farah's ex-school some credit there.

And RPA's results are really fantastic - 91% 5 GCSEs, 61% inc. Eng and Maths, and the truly impressive result is that they beat Teddington on Maths passes A-C (73%).

Am also very impressed by Grey Court's 100% pass record in French and Music (and 80% Maths passes). Well done to our local schools.

GCSE Results Day at Twickenham Academy says: . . In its first year, 85% of the new Academy´s students achieved passes in 5 GCSE subjects. Not a single student left the academy without a qualification. Close to 50% (49%) of our students achieved 5 A* to C results including the core subjects of English and Maths and over 80% of students achieved two or more science GCSEs. These are the best results ever achieved by the Academy or its predecessor school . .

The Heathland School in Hounslow matched Feltham with 62% a-c including English and maths. See here.

Lots more detail here:

Richmond Park Academy
Christ's
Grey Court
Teddington
Orleans Park

Results are of course still provisional as many schools are challenging the English regrading. But such impressive and ever improving results will generate similar demand for places at secondary schools as for primary schools.

Extra info on Grey Court here, they beat Orleans and Teddington with their 68% 5 A-C inc. Eng and Maths, although of course all schools have great strengths in particular subjects.

All these results are fantastic, and sorry not to have compared like with like. And all in a really tough year in which English / English Lit results surely have to go up, between a national enquiry and schools applying for extensive coursework remoderation / remarking of papers. All you can say for the debacle is it didn't discriminate, with 16 year olds at the C/D boundary denied a pass and at the A*/A/B boundary denied the grades they need for uni choices. To my knowledge locally Twickenham Academy and Orleans, St Pauls and LEH saw a very significant effect on results. I have heard that LEH Eng Lit results were down 40%, that is anecdotal but mirrors what the Head of Wycombe Abbey was saying in the Press. So it is a real achievement that these local schools actually managed to improve their results.

Whatever was 'down 40%' it was not the overall 'all subjects' pass [A - C] rate which fell by 0.4 % from 69.8 % to 69.4 % = c.10,000 pupils in the whole country. The A rate fell by 0.5 to 7.3 , the A rate by 0.3 to 15.1, the B rate was unchanged at 21.7 and the C rate rose by 0.4 %.

It may refer to the % of As in English which fell overall from 4.7 to 3.4 = a 28 % fall. The English A - C rate fell by 1.5 % to 63.9 %.

Source: Results 2012 Thursday 23 August Joint Council For Qualifications
Provisional GCSE (Full Course) Results - June 2012 (All UK Candidates) [I don't have a link for this as I got it some days ago via a Guardian webpage from DfE no doubt].

The Eng Lit A % rate fell by 0.5 to 9.0, the A-C % rate fell by 2.1 to 76.3.

It was an anecdotal comment purely about the English Lit grades at LEH, This is the coverage of a similar decline in A / A at Wycombe Abbey. I have no idea why these superselective schools might be particularly hit, more pupils at the A/A/B boundaries?, but it does underline how well the state schools have done in a difficult year.

Wycombe's comment is about A levels:

Wycombe Abbey School, criticised the sudden decline in scores, warning that it could affect students? university admissions. The girls? boarding school in Buckinghamshire, which has been named top of a Daily Telegraph league table of A-level results published today, recorded sharp drops in some papers, particularly English literature.

It was revealed that between 80 and 90 per cent of exams were graded A in maths and science but English literature scores suddenly dropped to just 30 per cent. The school uses the OCR exam board. Mrs Hall told the Telegraph: ?It means some of our top scholars are getting As for everything else but not English.

I'm sorry but I don't agree, I suppose you could read that paragraph that way but the article is about GCSEs and it is clear to me she is commenting on GCSEs, and their A level record is mentioned purely to emphasise this is a top performing school , and doubtless get some clicks on their A level league table . Apart from anything else the new A grade at A level is more discriminating than the Aat GCSE, I doubt she would be going public to complain if 30% of A level English Lit was being graded at A*. However for the avoidance of doubt, she is also quoted in the Mail [[ www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2193198/GCSE-results-2012-Ofqual-look-GCSE-gradings-headteachers-threaten-legal-action.html Private school heads joined the outcry, including the headmistress of this year?s top school for A-levels, who warned that results in GCSE English appear to have been ?artificially depressed?.

Cynthia Hall, head of £31,950-a-year Wycombe Abbey School, fears that some of her most talented pupils could miss out on places at leading universities because they have been unfairly denied A*s.]] Although being the Mail it has quoted her wrongly.

In any case my main point is that local state schools have bucked the national trend and so their improvements are all the more impressive.

Sorry heres a working link www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2193198/GCSE-results-2012-Ofqual-look-GCSE-gradings-headteachers-threaten-legal-action.html

Yes, I agree on further investigation. Wycombe averaged 77 % A* in English Lit in 2010 and 2011, so a 'sudden drop to just 30 per cent' is a strong signal that something has gone wrong.

It's interesting that it will be private schools that will in the end put the pressure on Michael Gove to sort this mess out.

Another Daily Mail article is on middle classes priced out of private education. For years Richmond council has relied on some 20% of its year 6 pupils transferring to private schools (on top of those who have already made that move), but parents will now look with greater confidence at local schools and that 'cushion' will disappear.

MuminLondon: this is a rehash of a story from April based on a TES article then. I can't see why they are using it again - must be short of news in August.

The Telegraph has also reported this as new research by Lloyds Bank.

The interesting connection here is whether people will question the value for money of private education if grades are that vulnerable. We have been over this ground before but why pay for St Catherine's (46% A/A grades) if you could get a place at Waldegrave (51% A/A grades without any entry test)? By the way, the national average is 22% of entries at A/A* and Teddington far exceeded that at around 30%. The other mixed comprehensives have done just as well, and in some subjects even better.

Richmond secondary schools - those that have published their results - are looking really good. Without any link school restriction there will be plenty of families targeting this area and from limited anecdotal evidence, retention rates in our primary schools through to year 6 are holding up really well too. I am wondering when we will see new projections for secondary school places.

Why cant Lord True "confidently and vigorously" fight for the grades of the Richmond students who feel let down ? Is our Council taking any action ?

Councillor Gareth Roberts expresses his candid views on RTT. www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/9893222.Catholic_school_debate_will_go_to_the_High_Court/?action=success#commentsList

All our Councillors should be open and frank and more vocal about their views. Its a real shame when our representatives, take cover behind party lines.

MuminLondon: Here's the same story from April - same picture, same content!

muminlondon St Catherine's serves a small niche so it is a bit different. It bumps along with about 17 to 20 in each year. Most parents I know who have sent their daughters there were after the small class sizes and strict old fashioned but nurturing environment. Parents who know their girls need extra support to achieve or who want their daughters to be sheltered from the wayward alpha girls you encounter elsewhere (private or state!). If they want better academic results they have plenty of other private options, and to be fair to St Cs the brighter girls who are good at passing exams will tend to go elsewhere so their results may be stellar given their cohort.

I am sure though there will be a shift from private to state but that will be the result of economic pressure, and parents and schools that previously couldn't access the good secondaries, but will now have a good state option, including those who will move into the catchment areas from elsewhere. That we have already seen with Waldegrave with the rapid shrinking of it's catchment, so the Council has a model, and it only met the demand amongst 50% of the population!

There is also an increasing feeling that with universities levelling the playing field an averagely bright child might actually have a better chance of getting to top unis from a state school than private. There has certainly been a trickle who have put their children into state sixth forms from private schools as a result as if unis can't distinguish between a good state and a bad one and see where they did their GCSEs