When schools' looks are deceiving

The school tracks the progress of all pupils

Grey Court School in leafy Richmond Upon Thames appears to be doing quite well, with its attractive surroundings and pupils achieving results above the national average.

It made significant improvements in the past academic year. In 2007, 43% of pupils achieved five good GCSEs including maths and English, this year 53% did so.

But if the school does not continue to make progress, it could be labelled "coasting" by the government.

These are schools where pupils could do better given their abilities when they join.

If a child is capable of achieving 10 A*s then they ought to be achieving 10 A*s. Maggie Bailey The govenment's plan for coasting schools

Rated as "satisfactory" by education inspectors in June 2007, Grey Court's Ofsted report said typically children were arriving with education standards that were a little above average.

But crucially they were leaving with standards that were average in most years.

Although things have improved at the school in Ham since then, new head teacher Maggie Bailey admits its still has a way to go

She described the situation when she arrived 18 months ago: "Although our headline figure was close to the national average, in terms of five GCSEs grade A to C, when we looked at the data and the individual performance of students, we realised there was actually a lot of underperformance.

"The complacency had set in and the trend was downwards."

For example, a child who was predicted 10 A*s in their GCSE results may still have got 10 good GCSEs, but they were only getting a sprinkling of As.

Miss Bailey feels it is a school's moral responsibility to ensure children achieve to the best level possible - whether they are the brightest or those who struggle the most.

Miss Bailey arrived at Grey Court 18 months ago

"If a child is capable of achieving 10 A*s then they ought to be achieving 10 A*s.

"If a child is getting Ds and Es and could be getting Cs then it's our moral duty to ensure that they get them so they can move on to the next stage of their education."

And the pupils seem to have noticed a difference in the school's ability to let them learn.

Head girl Amber Scarlett said: "It's definitely changed. Now we've got new teachers, better trained and they can control our classes.

"Our classes weren't always the best at times and we couldn't always get the learning that we needed.

"Not everybody got the right work so that they could be pushed. If we had a disrupted class - a lot of time would be wasted."

Tracking system

Since Miss Bailey's arrival, the school has instituted a programme of intensive pupil tracking to ensure children are achieving what they are capable of.

This is one of the key themes in the government's new policy designed to help "coasting schools" improve. Schools should have an effective system of predicting a child's results and of tracking their achievements, ministers say.

At Grey Court, predictions of pupils' ability are made on the basis of the Sats results they bring with them from primary school and from the results of a test they take on arrival at the school that is similar to the traditional 11-plus.

The school has improved its performance at GCSE level

Teacher assessments are also used to give each child a target for their GCSE results.

The school then uses a computer programme to flag up when children are not achieving the results in their exams that they could be getting.

In it, a pupil who is on track for a grade below one they are deemed capable of would be classed as "amber". If they drop two grades below their potential, they are flagged red.

But Ms Bailey says it is not simply about identifying those who are slipping back, it is the work that is put in afterwards.

This includes putting in place an intervention package designed to bring them up to scratch.

"It may be that all their coursework is done early so that we can look really carefully at it and ensure that they move up a grade.

"It's that razor-sharp analysis of what's going on, then ensuring that whatever's done really involves the student, because if you don't do that you are on a hiding to nothing."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version