Double blow for Merseyside in school league tables
Jan 10 2008


Exam hall

MERSEYSIDE was dealt a double blow in today’s national GCSE and A-level league tables.

Knowsley finds itself rock bottom of both the GCSE and A-level rankings.

And Speke’s Parklands High School is labelled the UK’s worst school.

Today education chiefs insisted the tables were flawed and did not reflect outside factors and the improvements pupils had made.

This year the league tables include year-on-year comparisons of the number of pupils achieving five A* to C grades including English and maths.

The government believe the benchmark is the most robust way to measure progress.

And based on the formula Knowsley council is languishing in last place.

Despite seeing its pass rate climb almost 1% to 26.7% is ranks 151 out of 152 local authorities.

Only the City of London, whose results have not been calculated, are below them.

It is also at the foot of the tables for A-levels based on pupils’ average point scores.

But Knowsley’s education boss Cllr Graham Wright stressed the tables failed to mention how the borough’s pupils were improving faster than the national average and its overall five A* to C pass rate had gone up for the ninth year running.

He added: “We have started from a low base so although our exam results have been improving for several years now there is still much progress to be made.”

Mr Wright said the multi-million pound makeover at its high schools and a concentration on literacy and numeracy should see further improvements.

Based on the new GCSE formula Parklands High School in Speke emerges as the worst in the UK with just 1% of pupils achieving five A* to C grades including maths and English.

But defiant headteacher Alan Smithies said the tables did not take into account the fact half of his pupils had special needs and four members of staff - including his head of maths and English - were absent with long-term illness - each stretching over six months.

He said: “When England lose two centre halves they struggle and it’s the same when a school loses key players they suffer.

“Raw scores are meaningless as they don’t reflect these factors and the cohort of kids.

“When it comes to our value added score and helping pupils’ potential we have been in the top 25% in the country for the last five years.”

Mr Smithies, who has now filled his vacancies, added: “League tables are flawed and its the battle schools like ours face.”

Regional LEA GCSE table
LEA Value added score % 5 GCSEs A* to C including maths and English 2007
Cheshire 996.6 51.3
Warrington 1001 49.8
Wirral 1009.7 48.3
Lancashire 998.5 48.1
Sefton 1002.1 45.5
St Helens 1005.2 41.3
Halton 1013 41
Liverpool 1008.9 37.1
Knowsley 1003.8 26.7

disgusting, I read the other day that only 1 in 5 kids will finish in the top 20% of students in Liverpool, what is the world coming to

I was really really peeved this morning.

It's meant to be our Capital of Culture year just starting and on GMTV this morning, there were around 3 bad press reports about Liverpool/Merseyside!

There were the police raids in Croxteth and Norris Green

The low exam results

Rhys's murder


I know there has to be news and I understand all of these things are headline, but all in one bulletin?!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I saw it DC :sad:

LIVERPOOL pupils are getting ever closer to the national average after posting another record-breaking year of results. Read (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/01/10/we-re-on-the-rise-100252-20332598/)

Council in move to claw £470k back from schools
Jan 14 2008
by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

MORE than £400,000 of unspent education cash is be clawed back by Liverpool City Council to help fund redundancies.

The money will come from 20 schools which have breached government guidelines for how much they can keep in reserve at any one time. Liverpool council says the clawback is the largest demanded by any authority in the UK to date.

Around £210,000 of the £470,668 will be used to help finance redundancy packages for teachers who lose their jobs when schools close or merge.

The rest will be put towards the multi-million pound Building Schools for the Future programme, expected to change the face of Liverpool’s education system over the next decade.

The Daily Post first revealed in November, 2006, that the city council planned to use government powers to stop schools from holding back too much cash in bank accounts.

A total of 44 are believed to have exceeded Government guidelines which demand no more than 8% of annual budgets be kept to one side.

Many of the schools have now submitted new plans to spend the cash, with projects including new playgrounds, computer suites, PE facility improvements and building repairs.

Of those 44, four are still to be visited by council inspectors, while half of those visited – 20 – will be told to pay money back.

The clawback will be deducted from their annual funding agreement, due in April.

The inspectors found that many of schools were holding money back because they expected to get less in future because pupil numbers were falling.

A spokesman for the department for children, schools and families said the Government expected funding, which is allocated per pupil, to be spent on the pupils it was intended for.

He added: “We are pleased to see Liverpool making use of the legislation, which is designed to make sure money allocated for pupils is actually spent on them.”

A spokesman for the city council said: “We believe that the magnitude of the proposals is by far the greatest amount to be clawed back to date from any authority in the UK.

“Officers believe those schools identified for claw-back can afford the proposed one-off deductions; greater deductions to those proposed will cause unnecessary difficulties. There was no evidence to suggest that schools were ‘hoarding’ money.”

The school with the largest amount saved for no obvious reason was Gateacre Comprehensive, which the council decided should pay back £227,000. The council spokesman added: “The school is part of the first phase of Building Schools for the Future, which involves moving to a new site and a new-build school.

“The head teacher and governing body have not wished to invest in capital works unless they are of an immediate health and safety issue, as they do not wish to spend available funds on the old site rather than the new site.”

Government guidelines stipulate secondary schools should never have more than 5% of their annual budget saved up, while primary and special schools can have 8%.

The council last year asked three schools – St Julie’s High, in Woolton; Broughton Hall High, in West Derby; and Hope special school, in Netherley – for a total of £200,000 back.

FIND out how your local high school is performing by looking at our GCSE school league tables, visit www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/education.

Source: Liverpool Daily Post (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/01/14/council-in-move-to-claw-470k-back-from-schools-64375-20346320/)

But the year’s results have not been without success stories.

Liverpool’s only grammar school, Blue Coat, in Wavertree, was ranked top school in the city and 30th best state school nationally.

All 120 pupils got five top GCSEs, while 92% of them had five top grades including maths and English.

Headteacher Sandy Tittershill said: “We are delighted with the GCSEs. very pleased and very proud of them.”