Kent's GCSE results have improved again

by political editor Paul Francis

Classroom standards at Kent's secondary schools have gone up again, official league tables have shown.

The tables indicate GCSE results have improved yet again, with students posting another set of record-breaking results.

But amid the good news, the results also appear to show that last year's dispute over the marking of GCSE English exams may have adversely affected some secondary schools, with some recording unexpected dips.

According to data published by the Department for Education today, 61% of pupils in the county passed five or more GCSEs including maths and English - an increase of 2% on the previous year. The national average was 59%.

In Medway, the number of pupils achieving five or more GSCE grades A*-C rose by more than 5% to 61.2%.

Amid the good news, there remains a big gap between the achievements of
pupils defined as disadvantaged and those that are not.

For Kent, pupils on free school meals are half as likely to secure five or more good GCSEs than others.

View today's exam league tables...

Kent's GCSE results

Kent's A-Level results

Medway's GCSE & A-level results

The tables do show there has been some improvement in the performance of poorer children, with 34% passing five or more GCSEs - an increase of 5% on 2011.

However, at the same time the gap remains broadly the same as the number of passes achieved by other pupils also went up by just over 4% to 67% last year.

Fifteen schools failed to meet the government's target of 40% of children passing the benchmark of five GCSE passes including maths and English, placing them at risk of intervention and the possibility of being forced to become academies.

There was less good news on the performance of schools when it came to
the government's new measure, the English Baccalaureate.

Just more than 20% of pupils achieved the Baccalaureate - awarded to those who achieve English, maths, a science, foreign language and a humanity such
as history or geography.

A total of 63 schools saw less than 10% of pupils get the Baccalaureate, with 20 of those seeing no pupils at all reaching the target.

This new measure introduced by the government two years ago is intended
to reward schools that offer a broad but academic curriculum.

In Medway, 61% of pupils secured five GCSE passes including English and
maths, a 3% improvement on the previous year.

The secondary school league tables - what's new?

The tables continue to show the number of pupils achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C including maths and English as the main benchmark.

The tables also include a new indicator known as English Baccalaureate to measure performance.

This shows the number of pupils achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A*to C in core subjects. These are English, maths, one science, one foreign language and one humanity subject.

There is more information about the performance of boys and girls in this year's tables, aimed at focusing on possible gender gap issues.

They also carry more detail about how well disadvantaged pupils are performing compared to others.

This is measured by looking at GCSE passes of those on free school meals or in care and comparing them with those who are not disadvantaged.

The value added measure in the tables is calculated by comparing each pupil's best eight GCSEs and taking into account their different
starting points and progress since arriving from primary school.

A score of 1,000 is the average so everything above that is regarded as adding value.