St Elphin's School logo

Anonymous letter.....



"Published on Thursday 22 January 2005 12:00

PUPILS from Derbyshire have once again been rated among the highest in the country in the Government's league tables published last week.

The tables profile GCSE, A-Level and vocational results and show that pupils in the county are continuing to improve and out-perform their peers from elsewhere in England.

GCSE results showed that St Elphins School in Darley Dale was top in the area with 85 per cent of pupils achieving five or more grades at A* to C.

Lady Manners School in Bakewell also ranked highly with 72 per cent, Matlock's Highfields School scored 62 per cent and Wirksworth's Anthony Gell School achieved 49 per cent.

St Elphins principal Dr Deborah Mouat said: "This was a tremendous achievement by our pupils and is a testament to the hard work of our teaching staff."

In terms of A-Level points-per-student scores, Lady Manners and Highfields both featured in the list of the area's top five schools, also ranking among the top comprehensive schools in the country.

St Elphins joined both of them in the list of the top seven schools with high points scores-per-entry at A-Level.

Highfields headteacher Ian Alford said: "Though the results were not quite as good as last year, we attribute the success to very good teaching across the patch. Our value-added figures have also been particularly pleasing once again."

Value-added measure scores, where pupil's progress from Key Stage Three to GCSE level are calculated, saw Lady Manners score highest in the area, with Anthony Gell and Highfields close behind.

Cllr Alan Charles, Derbyshire County Council's cabinet member for education, said: "Across the board Derbyshire has seen significant improvements in results, continuing the trend of recent years in outperforming the national and East Midlands averages.

"Good progress is being made across the county at GCSE level, and shows the investment that Derbyshire County Council and the Government is putting into education. It is also further proof of the hard work by pupils, teachers, support staff, governors and parents."

By Mark Duffy

 

Reprinted by kind permission of Matlock Mercury


Back to top
Back to Press Cuttings