PUPILS in London’s deprived East End have boosted their GCSE passes above the national average improvement rate for the first time, figures released today reveal.
Tower Hamlets schools collectively came out with a six percentage point improvement in five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C, including English and maths, according to the Department of Education statistics.
They went from just under 46 per cent in 2009 to almost 52 per cent last year, almost double the national improvement rate, the figures show.
Tower Hamlets is now just 1.6 percentage points below the national average of 53.4 pass rate.
The East End’s biggest improvement by far was the London East Academy’s 96 per cent, compared to 70 per cent the previous year—making it the top Tower Hamlets percentage scorer.
Second highest was Jamiatul Ummah Secondary with 93 per cent, compared to 80 per cent.
Stepney’s Sir John Cass Foundation went up from 55 per cent to 75 per cent.
The troubled St Paul’s Way Trust School in Bow Common, which went over to ‘trust’ status last year after a long campaign by parents, shot up from 29 to 46 per cent. It was languishing at the bottom of the Tower Hamlets table just four years ago with 20 per cent passing—now it has doubled that rate.
More than half the pupils at Bethnal Green Technology College got five or more GCSEs at A* to C for the first time, improving by 19 points to 58 per cent.
Only two Tower Hamlets schools did worse than the previous year. Shadwell’s Bishop Challener for Girls slipped from 56 per cent to 51, while Madani Secondary for Girls slumped from 76 to 62.
Stepney Green Mathematics and Computing College remained static at 57 per cent.
Other schools showing improvements were Bishop Challoner Boys in Shadwell, Bow’s Central Foundation for Girls, Raine’s Foundation and Bow Maths and Computing, Poplar’s Langdon Park, Bethnal Green’s Morpeth and Oaklands secondaries, George Green’s in Cubitt Town, Isle of Dogs, the London Islamic, Mazahirul Uloom and Whitechapel’s Mulberry Girls.
Today’s figures show around 25,600 more pupils in the country achieving five GCSE A* to C passes including English and maths than last year.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here