Summary
AS WE PUBLISH the secondary school league tables today, our congratulations go to the staff and pupils of Sir John Cass Church of England School in Stepney, which for the second year running has been ranked the most-improved in the country. Just under 80 per cent of its students achieved five good GCSEs, defined as A* to C, in 2003. The school's social mix and multiethnic intake - three- quarters of pupils qualifying for free school meals - are factors which could have been used as excuses for poor performance. Instead, with high standards of discipline, strong leadership and, recently, specialist status, the Stepney school has shown how effectively all children can learn. For those families not fortunate enough to have a school like this on their doorsteps, however, the picture is altogether more dismal. Inner London schools' results have improved, but well over half their 16-year-olds still fail to achieve five good GCSEs and head for adulthood with little to show for 11 years of education. Indeed, there are still 23 schools in London where more than four children in five leave without this basic set of qualifications - a benchmark which, as we learnt earlier this week, may not even include maths and English. That is a terrible failure, and casts a shadow over the promise made four years ago by the then Education Secretary, David Blunkett, that by 2004 there would be no state school anywhere in England that achieved so little. The chances of fulfilling that promise in this summer's exams are slim. The nationwide target set by the Treasury for a two per cent annual improvement in the proportion of 16-year-olds achieving five good GCSEs has not been met either. For all the Government's talk of educating the population for the skilled jobs of tomorrow's globalised economy, we still live in a country where nearly half of all youngsters fail to reach basic standards. But the performance of Sir John Cass shows that turnarounds can happen.
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Extract
Turning Around London's Schools
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