Response to David Pugh’s Comments On Standards Not Rising Fast Enough
Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release (2) - 25th February 2008
David Pugh stated on Isle of Wight Radio yesterday (26/02/08) that standards are not rising fast enough on the Isle of Wight and that only by reorganising can we change this.
Research shows that the Isle of Wight is the 9th most improved Local Authority in England for its GCSE results in 2007 (5+ A*-C inc E&M) which demonstrates that it is heading in the right direction, not merely “coasting”.
Standards-Not-Tiers acknowledges that standards must improve, but unlike the Council we would argue that being ranked 9th in the country for sustained improvement in the number of students gaining five or more A* - C grades including English and Maths over the last three years together with the achievement of being one of only 5 Authorities to have no schools achieving less than 39% in the 2007 GCSE A*-C including English and Maths is significant and demonstrates that our current three tier system is capable of delivering the necessary improvements to educational standards on the Isle of Wight.
A Standards-Not-Tiers spokesperson said: “this goes a long way to proving our contention that it is not the structure that is holding us back, but the way in which we have been using it. If we are able to demonstrate such improvement during a period of turmoil, then we should be confident of much greater improvement if we are allowed to work with and develop the existing three tier structure, along the lines that this organisation has consistently argued is possible”.
Standards-Not-Tiers believe that the current reorganisation plans are poorly conceived and that there is no evidence to show that the proposed actions will raise standards. Only by addressing the root problems at key stages two and three can we be sure to improve standards. This can be done by means other than wholesale reorganisation. Such measures include better Key Stage Two team working, between primary and middle schools to address the lack of accountability for Key Stage Two results and a continuation and improvement of the current and highly successful condensed Key Stage Three in years seven and eight at middle school. This should be followed by action to address the size of our year groups at high school, which are amongst the largest in the country a factor that may contribute significantly to our underperformance at GCSE.
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February 28th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I absolutely agree that size of class makes a massive difference. It has been proved time and again that the behaviour of pupils becomes markedly better when class sizes are reduced and results improve therefore. There is also evidence to show that the ideal high school size should be around 400 and schools worldwide that have implemented this have showing startling results. I believe this is what the council should be looking at with regards to reorganisation and not concerning themselves with the primaries which are doing so well.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I’ve just had confirmation that the IOW was actually the 7th most improved LA (out of 149 in England) at GCSE. I asked the DSCF to clarify and have just received this response from them:
“Thank you for your email dated 07 February 2008 about Secondary and
16-18 Performance Tables.
I can confirm that the Isle of Wight is the 7th best performing Local
Authority based on their sustained improvement at 5+ A*-C inc. English
and Maths since 2004 with an improvement of 9.6 percentage points.
Based on the same measure of 5+ A*-C in any subjects, the Isle of Wight
are the 67th most improved LA with a sustained improvement of 8.3
percentage points. I have attached the full list of LAs for info.”
[This is an Excel spreadsheet. If you’d like me to forward it to you, site Admin, let me know. Would be helpful to have this data accessible in the menu on the right hand of the web page maybe?]
February 28th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
It certainly seems like the evidence is there for our improving standards. How much faster do the council expect things to improve? I believe this improvement will be slowed considerably, if not reversed initially by their plans. Any authority that has undergone major reorganisation has seen standards slip initially. Surely this would be crazy when so many staff and students have been working so hard to achieve the improving standards that have happened. It really is a kick in the teeth - make efforts to improve, achieve a steady rise in standards over several years and then be told actually thats not good enough we’re going to cause disruption and uncertainty to those of you who have made that effort!
February 28th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
The excel document that Wendy sent me can be seen here - http://www.saveiowschools.co.uk/archives/154