Issue 453 – Highs and lows of Matravers School results

MATRAVERS School’s A-level result were amongst the best ever, but headteacher Chris Dark said he was still disappointed that the school had failed to reach its own targets for GCSE results in some areas.

He was commenting following the publication of school league tables for GCSE, AS and A-level results this month. The league tables are based on data published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Chris Dark said that the school would continue to push to improve results.
League tables show that 39 percent of pupils leave with five GCSEs including English and maths at grades A-C. This figure compares to a county average of 55.4 percent and a national average of 49.8 percent. The 39 percent figure is the same as the school has achieved for the last three years, but Matravers had set itself a target of 44 percent this year.
Chris Dark said, “For GCSEs the number of students achieving five or more at A-C were the best ever at 61 percent.
“However we were disappointed with the percentage achieving five A-C grades with English and maths, which was 39 percent. This was five percent lower than the target we had set ourselves and we were really disappointed after a lot of effort and hard work. It was painful for us.”
The school had put extra effort into bumping up grades this year, such as bringing in tutors and mentors for students who were on the borderline of grades in English and maths.
He said, “We are determined to make sure we do better next summer. As a performing arts school we have usually done well in music, the arts, drama and humanities as well, but now there is a much greater emphasis on English and maths and that’s where we need to make the gap up. If I’m blunt we should’ve had 44 percent, we didn’t do that and we’ve got to get that sorted.”
You can view a breakdown of the Matravers GCSE, AS and A-level results by visiting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ shared/bsp/hi/education/09/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/865_5415.stm