Free school doesn't enter entire Y11 for any GCSEs as they would all fail.

[noblegiraffe]

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/free-school-gcse-exams-no-year-11-pupils-mature-enough-not-ready-route-39-academy-north-devon-a7863006.html

There were only 13 pupils in Y11 at Route 39 Academy, but none of them were entered for any GCSEs, because they were 'neither academically ready nor sufficiently mature or resilient to have taken the examinations'.

What on earth is going on at that school?

Progress 8 is average this year, that doesn't mean it would have been for the 28% year, and the school itself admitted the results were disappointing. The Ofsted report on the other hand, which was from when this cohort were in Y10 talks about rapid progress, good progress, remarkable progress. Clearly they were expecting better too.

There is a suspicion that Free Schools are given an easier ride by Ofsted. Having read the Ofsted report about Saxmundham which is outstanding in two areas, it wouldn't surprise me.

Devilish I've always understood that the DfE contains a lot of people whose views would be very anti-Govian. This makes sense because they would be employing people with experience in education, many of whom would have originally been trained in the constructivist approaches popular in our teacher training institutions.

There were various forms of foot-dragging and negotiations required over the introduction of systematic synthetic phonics, for example, as I recall from reading the Reading Reform Foundation website over the years.

Route 39 Academy has an ex-DFE person on their Board of Governors:

Christina Woodroffe - Special Educational Needs & Disabilities, Safeguarding and Looked After Children Responsibility

Christina lives in Hartland and describes herself as a 'career educationalist'. She has been a successful Headteacher, an LA School Improvement Adviser, an Ofsted Inspector, NPQH examiner and a DfE Quality Assurance Adviser......Since then she has undertaken some consultancy, working with Outstanding schools in the South West for the Schools of Creativity Project.

Their approach is clearly very 'constructivist', with lots of emphasis on discovery and projects:

www.route39.org.uk/life-long-learners

I've been having a look at the data for Saxmundham and the average P8 score covers a multitude of sins. They are failing boys and disadvantaged pupils in a way that is quite shocking. The P8 for disadvantaged pupils is -0.89 and out of the 14 boys in year 11 last year only ONE got Cs in English and Maths. Its also worth noting that the average P8 band is -0.19. If their pupils did 10 GCSEs their grades would be two grades lower than kids with the same prior attainment in a truly average (P8 0) school.

For comparison P8 in my outstanding school for disadvantaged pupils was, I think, +0.71 last year. So at our school, disadvantaged pupils (assuming they were entered for 10 GCSEs to make the maths easier) would have got 16 grades higher than those with the same prior attainment at their school. That's the difference between 10 Cs and 6 As and 4Bs with the same prior attainment. Noble, please correct me if my maths is off, I teach history.

I made a mistake, its -0.79 not -0.89 so the difference would be fifteen grades or 5As and 5 Bs.

Although there are no schools with a similar achievement intake within 75 miles that performed better??!
www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/similar/138273?phase=ks4

There's only one other school on that list that's even in Suffolk, Clavinova, suggesting that other schools in Suffolk have different KS2 profiles, not that they aren't getting good or better results.

My school is second on the list of similar intake schools but now you mention it on that list there isn't another school in our local authority with similar intake that did worse so maybe we aren't very good after all.

If you sort secondary schools in Suffolk by progress of disadvantaged pupils, Saxmundham is 38 / 62 - most of he schools below it are special schools, or have no data because they are middle schools with no GCSE pupils.

36th for boys' progress.

25th for pupils who were previously low attaining.

52nd for those who were previously high attaining (a very small number)

I think I'll go for 'mixed picture'

Thank you Mr Gove!
^BBC News: 28 June 2013: A free secondary school criticised as unnecessary will provide more choice, Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove has said. The Route 39 Academy is due to open in September in a former primary school at Higher Clovelly in north Devon. Holsworthy Community College head David Fitzsimmons said the school would be a waste of public money at a time when class sizes in the area were falling. Route 39 is due open with six teachers and about 60 students. The school eventually hopes to take up to 500 pupils up to age 16, and also provide sixth-form courses. Mr Fitzsimmons said he was concerned Route 39 would take government education funding away from other schools.
He said he was already losing 12 pupils next year and that he had had to make staff redundant as a result. Those behind the Route 39 Academy intend to move it to a permanent site at Buck's Cross
He said: "This school, in our view, undermines the original intention of the free school programme, which is to provide additional capacity in areas where schools are heavily oversubscribed. "Were we oversubscribed in this area, we wouldn't have a problem with the proposal."
Speaking during a two-day visit to the county, Mr Gove said: "An additional school in north Devon will give parents a wider range of choices and will also be a complement to the already existing good provision." Route 39 principal Joss Glossop said the project was "absolutely not a waste of public money". She said: "It provides a new choice for education and investment for this area." ....
Those behind Route 39 eventually want it to move permanently to Buck's Cross, near Clovelly.^

I think that raises an important question about many free schools.

While some - the new breed of 'every new school has to be a free school' schools in particular - are genuinely needed to cope with rising numbers, many simply take students from other local schools.

So the question of their worth becomes not 'How well are their pupils doing?' but 'How much better are they doing than they would have done in existing schools, if the same amount of money as was spent on the free schools had been allocated to the same pupils in existing schools?'

The Seckford schools (Beccles,Saxmundham and Ixworth) are very controversial in Suffolk (and not popular with most parents) because they were located in areas of falling school rolls (and despite a real need for additional schools further south in East Ipswich).

They threatened the financial stability of the existing High Schools as the other schools in the area are poorly funded, with none of the startup additional funding that free schools attract (which I understand means they get funded as if they were at full capacity even if undersubscribed).
Of the existing schools, Sir John Lehman in Beccles is still doing well because it has a great reputation for results but Alde Valley is more precarious risking the existence of its (and that area's only sixth form.)

The numbers going to the Free Schools in East Suffolk remains low as the exam results are very poor compared to the existing schools (especially the more popular schools in Framingham and Woodbridge).

Sax free school had the weakest cohort (on KS2 attainment) in the county taking exams last year I believe. None of that year group joined the school in y7 either (as the school didn't exist back then), so all would have been unhappy/not achieving at their original schools, (not the best indicator for future attainment). That must apply to all free schools' early cohorts too and makes it a bit dangerous to compare the early results with longer established schools.

Sax has a reputation locally for taking children who have been permanently excluded from elsewhere (thus keeping them out of PRUs) and anecdotally getting them to apply themselves too, which sounds like a good thing to me, but isn't likely to reflect brilliantly in their results.

In contrast to the poster above I also know of parents who are extremely positive about the school (and none who aren't, but to be fair I'm talking about less than half a dozen parents here, I don't know many). Some of the parents bus their children very long distances to it, which again suggests it must have something appealing.

It's existence seems to have given Alde Valley the impetus it needed to finally turn itself around too as it's results have been on the up since it had some competition.

I suspect the school isn't as bad as it's results first suggest.

It's existence seems to have given Alde Valley the impetus it needed to finally turn itself around too as it's results have been on the up since it had some competition.

Or you could also see it as Alde Valley's results being on the up since another school started taking all its more challenging pupils?

It's not true that all Free Schools early results will be affected by being pupils who joined the school partway through secondary education so are disaffected (although this seems to be what has caused UTCs a major problem - happy, successful pupils don't leave their current school at 14). A lot of other Free Schools start by only opening to Y7 and not the higher year groups. Michaela, for example, opened in 2014 and only has pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 at the moment so any results posted in 2 years time will be from pupils who spent their secondary education there.

It's also almost certainly invalid to analyse its results in any great detail, given it only had 27 pupils taking exams.

Samuel Ward, buy the way, looks interesting - nearly 1/3 low attainers (57 / 180 vs Sax's 12 / 27). Progress 8 of 0.57 vs Sax's -0.19. Progress 8 for low attainers of 0.53 vs Sax's -0.07. Does anyone know the school to know what they are doing right, as those are the kind of results for a low attaining cohort that it is worth other schools learning from?

I have to say I'm becoming more wary of Progress 8 the more stuff that comes out about it. The complaint that it can be massively skewed by outliers appears to be valid and they may be removed from future calculations. When you're dealing with such small numbers (such as a small school, and then a subsection of that small school like 'low attainers'), the effect of an outlier or so could be massive. These progress 8 scores without the confidence intervals really tell us nothing.

Agree.

Samuel Ward's confidence interval for low attainers is 0.26 to 0.81.

Sax's is -0.67 to 0.53!!

Definitely worth waiting for a few extra years with larger numbers to see how their track record develops. As I said above, Ofsted should probably do the same - interim assessments until a few years of external exams have been taken.

It's a bit far back in the thread but Michaela School got an Outstanding from Ofsted.

reports.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/140862

The school reacted to it in a rather muted way - perhaps were a bit embarrassed given their self-image as fighters of the educational establishment!! Another of the more radical free schools also got an Ofsted Outstanding

www.school21.org.uk/ofsted

At the other extreme: www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/failing-free-school-closed-down-13259912

Discovery School in Newcastle has recently been rated inadequate. Part of the problem is that it doesn't teach any arts, humanities, MFL or PE.

schoolsweek.co.uk/free-school-that-omits-arts-and-humanities-rated-inadequate/

This is another school in the Seckford Trust in suffolk www.eadt.co.uk/news/ixworth-free-school-rated-requires-improvement-after-first-ofsted-inspection-1-5132807

"The reason i am advocate for grammar schools..."

Is probably because you have your child at one or you think your child is bright enough to get in.

Not met many people outside of these categories who support grammars.

"The reason i am advocate for grammar schools..."

Is probably because you have your child at one or you think your child is bright enough to get in.

Not met many people outside of these categories who support grammars.

It might be true that both my DDs are Grammar school girls !

However, like 'Sheena Easton' i was a 'Modern Girl' with SEN that was not even acknowledged never mind helped with !

I am fully aware of what a 1980s Kent Secondary Modern education was and what they delivered for their inmates !