Schools in Devon have climbed hundreds of places in the national rankings and some have even entered the top 100. The new list has been described as a “fairer” measure of the positive impact teachers are having on pupils.
Each secondary school across the country has been measured against additional performance metrics in a new ‘Fairer Schools Index’, which aims to improve on the Department for Education’s league tables and remove some of the built-in bias against schools in deprived areas.
The results have been revealed exclusively by The Mirror and show that a huge number of schools jump up hundreds of places in the rankings when factors such as pupil demographics, ethnicity, and deprivation are taken into account.
In Devon, Cranbrook Education Campus moved up 937 places and South Devon College in Torbay shot up by a whopping 1,405 places. The index has also seen three Devon schools enter the top 100, including Churston Ferrers Grammar School Academy which leapt 266 places to be ranked at 95.
Scroll for an interactive tool to see how schools in your area have performed.
For many years the Government has evaluated schools using the Progress 8 measure, which doesn’t take into account the number of children from poorer backgrounds at each school. Critics say this risks hiding systemic inequalities and offers potentially misleading conclusions about a school’s performance.
The Mirror reports that there are growing calls for the Labour government to provide context to school rankings and it is also reported that Ofsted is considering new measurements to better inform parents.
The Fairer Schools Index, developed by the University of Bristol, has addressed the North/South divide in Government league tables. In the North of England, 223 out of 928 schools moved up at least one band to ‘average’ or better.
Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “The Fairer Schools Index exposes the shortcomings of Progress 8 being used to measure any school’s performance on its own.
“By failing to account for a number of different variables related to pupils’ backgrounds, the last government labelled many schools in areas like the North East of England as under-performing while failing to account for demographic differences in helping drive higher outcomes in London schools.
“We are advocating for the adoption of a value-added measure side by side with the current, unadjusted data. This will allow us to recognise better those schools that do the most for those children from backgrounds too often let down in modern Britain.
“We must demand the best for every child. Those schools that beat the odds stacked against their pupils should be recognised as being high performing, and that will drive down the disadvantage gap over the decade to come and reduce the gaps which exist across and between parts of England today.”
Here are how schools ranked in the South West:
- Henley Bank High School, Gloucestershire (13)
- Glenmoor Academy, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (32)
- Colyton Grammar School, Devon (35)
- Winton Academy, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (39)
- Brymore Academy, Somerset (54)
- Five Acres High School, Gloucestershire (70)
- Poole High School, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (72)
- Chulmleigh Community College, Devon (77)
- Uffculme School, Devon (93)
- Churston Ferrers Grammar School Academy, Torbay (95)
Highest climbers in the South West:
- All Saints Church of England Academy, Plymouth (451) – up 1899 places
- South Devon College, Torbay (1770) – up 1405 places
- Marine Academy Plymouth, Plymouth (1065) – up 1329 places
- Broadoak Academy, North Somerset (991) – up 1177 places
- Cape Cornwall School, Cornwall (992) – up 1104 places
- Sir John Hunt Community Sports College, Plymouth (1239) – up 1098 places
- Cranbrook Education Campus, Devon (474) – up 937 places
- Redruth School, Cornwall (802) – up 935 places
- Camborne Science and International Academy, Cornwall (1254) – up 915 places
- Bridge Learning Campus, Bristol, City of (1913) – up 898 places