Shene School is 'one of most improved schools in London' for GCSE results, Government figures show

For those who don't receive the Richmond and Twickenham Times, I thought we would print in full their article which was published Wednesday 13 January:

Shene School was today hailed as one London's most improved schools by the Government for its GCSE performance.

The school was one of only 26 in London that saw a rise of at least 10 per cent in GCSE pass rates in 2009, according to figures released yesterday by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The number of pupils awarded five or more A* to C grade GCSEs including English and mathematics - the Government’s main measure of achievement - was up 10 percentage points to 45 per cent.

Lesley Kirby, headteacher of the Park Road school, said: “We have almost doubled our results in two years. There aren’t many schools in London that can say that. It’s testament to our students and teachers. We are really thrilled. We have an ambition to be one of the most successful schools in London in terms of moving the children along their path. Our desire locally is to be the school of choice for local parents. I hope parents will see they can entrust their children to us and they will do well.”

As you can imagine, I was delighted to receive the phone call on Monday from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) telling us the good news and congratulating us on the achievement. The local press came down on Wednesday to photograph some of this year's Year 11 who are all on track to achieve outstanding results too.  Our 5 A* to C including English and Maths (what the government terms 'good' GCSEs) actually exceeded the  so-called 'D' targets set by the Family Fischer Trust, which is the organisation used by the goverment to set targets for secondary schools based on the results obtained by students in KS2.  The 'D' targets are those achieved by the top 25% of similar schools.

We are now focussed on ensuring our current Year 11 better their targets and reach their potential: all have high targets and are constantly being challenged to hit them.