The 10 best schools across the South West have been unveiled in a Fairer Schools Index, which gives a more accurate insight into the places where teachers are truly making a difference in class.
Researchers have measured every school in the country against a series of additional performance metrics to improve on official DfE league tables, and remove some of the built-in bias against secondary schools teaching children from deprived areas.
Although the South West top ten does not include any Plymouth schools, three in the city have been singled out for showing a big improvement in the latest results.
All Saints Academy has gone up 1,899 places and is now ranked 451. Marine Academy Plymouth has also climbed a whopping 1,329 places and is now ranked 1,065. Sir John Hunt has also improved by 1,098 places and is now ranked 1,239.
The results show the schools where teachers are beating the odds to make the greatest positive impact on pupils up to the age of 16.
Fairer Schools Index: South West top ten (and the ten schools which climb the most places compared to the P8 score)
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
All Saints Church of England Academy, Plymouth (451) – up 1,899 places South Devon College, Torbay (1,770) – up 1,405 places Marine Academy Plymouth, Plymouth (1,065) – up 1,329 places Broadoak Academy, North Somerset (991) – up 1,177 places Cape Cornwall School, Cornwall (992) – up 1,104 places Sir John Hunt Community Sports College, Plymouth (1,239) – up 1098 places Cranbrook Education Campus, Devon (474) – up 937 places Redruth School, Cornwall (802) – up 935 places Camborne Science and International Academy, Cornwall (1,254) – up 915 places Bridge Learning Campus, Bristol, City of (1,913) – up 898 places
The study highlights the dozens of schools which have climbed hundreds of places up the rankings when additional factors such as pupil demographics are taken into account.
Use this interactive tool to see how schools in your area have performed
For many years the Government’s method of evaluating secondary school performance, known as the Progress 8 measure, has failed to take into account factors including the number of children from poorer backgrounds at each school.
Doing so, critics say, risks hiding systemic inequalities and providing potentially misleading conclusions about school performance, with regions like the North East seeing its schools unfairly marked down because the areas they serve are not taken into account.
There are growing calls for the new Labour government to provide that crucial context and Ofsted is reported to be considering a new range of measurements for schools that will better inform parents.
The Fairer Schools Index goes some way to redress the ‘false narrative’ of a North / South divide in Government league tables. Developed by the University of Bristol, the index adjusts for variables including pupil demographics, ethnicity, and deprivation.
The results show the real difference that the best schools make rather than pretending every school has an identical intake with the same socio-economic status and background.
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.”
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