There has been yet another overall rise in GCSE performance this year in Brighton & Hove’s secondary schools – set against the backdrop of a national drop in results.
This completes a set of results that mean the city’s pupils are achieving well in every phase of education.
At the previous ‘benchmark’ figure for the proportion of students achieving 5 or more GCSEs with A*-C grades including English and Maths there has been a rise of one percentage point to 62% from 61% in 2015.
City-wide the percentage of pupils achieving A*-C in English is 73% against 67% nationally in 2015.
In maths the percentage of pupils achieving A*-C in maths is also above the national average at 70% against 67% nationally in 2015.
Starting this year new government performance indicators are focusing on how much progress students make from where they start in Year 7 to when they complete their exams at the end of Year 11.
This new measure is known as ‘Progress 8’. This will be calculated for each school and as an overall city-wide figure later in the year.
The chair of the council’s children and young people committee, Councillor Tom Bewick said: “Last year Brighton & Hove had the most improved results of any local authority in the country.
“This year’s results represent yet another step forward for our city and I take my hat off to all the hard work our students and staff have put in.
“My congratulations also to the headteachers across the city whose hard work and collaborative approach is a huge and effective part of the drive to deliver the best for all our pupils.
“I’m thrilled about the massive 22 percentage points improvement in results at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy.
“Cardinal Newman has done fantastically well to achieve its best ever results. I’m really pleased to see Longhill thriving and Patcham making progress in all areas.
“School improvement is above all about attention to detail, both in terms of data collection and analysis and individual students getting the targeted support they need.
“The council’s education team works in close partnership with all our schools, offering them both support and challenge. The team has played a key role in this year’s improvements, and we will continue to work with our schools to drive forward further improvements in future.
“I look forward to a more detailed analysis being presented to the children, young people and skills committee in due course. This will include an examination of how well we are doing in terms of closing the disadvantage gap in the city.”
