GCSE Performance for Kent Schools: 2018

Note: To assist those looking for information on secondary school transfer, you will find the parallel  article on Medway GCSE outcomes here. I have also published 2018 school appeals. You will find items on the Kent Test and Medway Test, previously published. 

This is the third year of the new GCSE assessments for measuring schools performance, Progress 8 and Attainment 8, which replaced the long established 5 A*-C GCSE league table including English and maths. 

Both key measures have had their methodology changed to suit government priorities and the new GCSE grading system As a result, numbers are not directly comparable to last year, but appear to be of a very similar nature.

Both Progress 8 and Attainment 8 are measured by an arcane formula combining results in eight curriculum subjects to produce numbers whose meaning and spread is very difficult to comprehend, but enable schools to be placed in an order. They  are measured across eight subjects, English maths, 3 qualifications from sciences, computer science, history, geography and languages, and 3 other additional approved qualifications.  for Progress 8 there is a target national average score of 0, with the great majority of schools being between +1 and -1. The government Floor Standard, or expectation is to be above -0.5, in which case “the school may come under increased scrutiny and receive additional support”. and 15 Kent secondary schools fail to meet this.There are further details of the outcomes below.  

At the foot of the table are 15 non-selectives which are below the government floor standard and must all be concerned at their performance which will itself hinder future recruitment of the quality staff and leaders needed to improve matters. This is a sharp increase on the 2017 figure of six schools and may suggest an increasing polarisation of non-selective schools in the county as those at the top perform better than ever. Four schools have been here for all three years of the new scheme: Astor College; Hartsdown; Royal Harbour; and Holmesdale. the first three of these, along with Oasis Academy, Isle of Sheppey and Folkestone Academy, also occupying places at the foot of the Attainment table. A total of ten out of the 15 schools are situated on the coast. Oasis and Folkestone are powerful examples of how poor leadership can destroy young people's future prospects, both featuring in previous articles in this website, and both having had a rapid turn over of headteachers. I have branded Oasis Academy and Hartsdown, both serving areas of high social deprivation,  as 'Tough Love Academies'  using unreasonably harsh disciplinary methods for minor offences guaranteed to alienate pupils who above all need support. The most recent example of poor leadership has seen Folkestone Academy plunge into this group of struggling schools  as the high profile Turner Schools trust thrashes around trying unproven methods to educate children, hoping to cover up their failures with extravagant PR claims. 

Astor College in Dover has been at the foot of the tables for years, having receiving two  Warnings  about unacceptable standards from the Department for Education, most recently  in 2015. It avoids  coasting Schools status (below)  by being fractionally above the cut-off in 2016. Dover Christ Church Academy is also in both lists, St Edmund's Catholic the third Dover school, being just above the cut off. The Dover Test for for grammar school entrance sees over 150 children annually who have not passed the Kent Test taken out of the system, which will inevitably be a factor in this low performance across the district. 

Leigh UTC also appears in both lists, down on both from 2017. Whilst its position as fourth lowest in the county for Progress 8 is significant, it should be borne in mind that there were only 36 pupils in Year 11. Medway UTC the only other local University Technical College came bottom in Medway by some way in Progress 8. 

Of the other schools at the foot of the table, Malling School is of particular interest. Five years ago, with the recent GCSE cohort it was another school of last resort for admission, but has been turned round by strong leadership, and is now heavily oversubscribed. It also carries the largest and most popular SEN Unit for children with EHCPs (the successors to SEN statements) in the county, whose results are included in the tables pulling it down the table. It won't be there next year. Other schools at the bottom of both lists are Marsh Academy and High Weald Academy. 

 Spires Academy which struggled since long before it became an academy, having no strong catchment in the small community of Sturry, near Canterbury, had a disastrous period being run by the previous Headteacher of controversial Simon Langton Girls Grammar, but  is now part of the E21C (Education for the 21st Century) Academy Trust in Bromley. It is one of a number of schools which have been turned round with a strong improvement and is now in the middle of the table.

Of those with Good Ofsted Reports,Archbishop's in Canterbury was heavily oversubscribed and successful a few years ago, but appears to have lost its way and no longer fills. Homewood in Tenterden is the largest secondary school in Kent with a good reputation but is clearly underperforming, as are Hugh Christie and Sandwich.