Henbury School named as one of most improved in Britain
HENBURY School has been named in the top 10 per cent of the most improved secondary schools in Britain.
The school was one of the worst performing in Bristol in 2004.
-
Headteacher Clare Bradford
It has been singled out for the huge rise in the number of its students earning 5 A*-C grades including maths and English over the last four years.
Those achieving the grades almost doubled, shooting up from 25 per cent in 2008 to 46 per cent last year.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) described the school's improvement as "stunning".
Clare Bradford, the school's head teacher, expects the figure to jump by another seven per cent when the latest set of GCSE results are released next month.
She puts the improvement in academic achievement at the school, which became an academy in June, down to increasing the aspirations of students.
When she arrived at the school in 2004, just 13 per cent of pupils managed 5 A*-C grades including maths and English. This rose to 25 per cent in 2008 then 27 per cent in 2009 before a dramatic leap to 39 per cent in 2010.
Ms Bradford said: "It's about working closely with the students and families to increase their aspirations and motivation, as well as focused hard work from staff and students. It's about children realising they have the chance to do as well here as anyone can anywhere else."
She said the school, a specialist arts college, had been the most improved in Bristol over a long period of time.
Henbury School became an academy on June 1, under an informal collaboration with top performing school St Bede's Catholic College in Lawrence Weston.
Explaining the decision to convert to an academy, which will give the school more freedom over its budget because funding will be received directly from the government, Ms Bradford said: "In Bristol, there are fewer and fewer schools which are not academies and less and less resources at local authority level.
"We thought we would be better off managing resources at a school level for the benefit of the children."
The school was given an award by the SSAT, the representative body for schools, for its improving GCSE performance. Every school in the country was ranked according to how much progress they had made in the last four years.
Sue Williamson, chief executive of SSAT, said: "Henbury School should be congratulated for their stunning achievement in improving their GCSE results.
"Henbury School has proved itself to be one of the best schools in the country at improving GCSE outcomes for their students. There are plenty of other schools that could learn from Henbury School's success.
"These results are testament to the commitment and hard work of students, teachers and the leadership team at the school and vindication of their belief in high expectations, good teaching and ambition for every young person.
"Successful schools like Henbury School understand the value of data, such as these progress measures, in helping ensure all young people perform to the very best of their ability.
"The progress measures show how schools make a difference and raise achievement above expectations."
Priory Community School in Weston-super-Mare was also recognised by the SSAT in its national league tables, for pupils exceeding expectations. The school was among the top 10 per cent nationally for 'adding value' to individual students' achievements at GCSE.
The value added score was worked out by comparing students' final grades with what marks they were expected to achieve when they were aged 11.
Comments
by Phurr
Wednesday, July 18 2012, 2:07PM
“BS9 Mum, Doh. If you are going to be bitter and *****y at least try to be coherent.
"Method of raising a schools league table ranking, aka: Grade inflation"
If there is grade inflation all school grades increase therefore rankings remain the same.
C-, must do better.”
by blahblkah
Friday, July 13 2012, 9:14PM
“Well done Henbury fantastic news. It makes me laugh how these people in BS9.5 still think they are better than people in the local neighbourhood. When i went to Henbury my friends were from Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury .
We all mixed and our parents approved even though one did`nt have a father and one of my friends father was a doctor (contrast).
Shock horror there were fights at the school and no doubt the odd bully which to me just reflects the world not Henbury.
These days we have parents that would not even give a local school a chance as the coffee sipping friends may turn there nose up.
I have friends who went on to be succesfull businessmen, trades people, managers and even a millionaire all from poor old Henbury . Probably the best things i came out of Henbury with was having my feet on the ground , being in touch with reality, respect , manners and a shed load of top grades.”
by dansqr
Friday, July 13 2012, 5:59PM
“BS9_Mum, I think your analysis of the situation, whether at Henbury or anywhere else, is unfair on the schools, highly subjective, and based on almost no fact at all.
The difficulty of the exams lies solely with the exam boards - Henbury uses AQA, Edexcel, WJEC, OCR, and other more vocational qualifications just like many other schools across the country, not necessarily because of how easy they are, but because the teachers know how to teach for those exams. It would be stupid for Henbury to choose the hardest qualifications, meaning the teachers had to retrain, and the students had a harder job than they would at any other secondary school.
Henbury puts massive resources into its lower achieving students, and has an excellent record for drastically improving their grades. This does not mean, however, that they neglect high achieving students. I know this from first hand experience, as a high achieving student myself. I was pushed at Henbury to do two early GCSE's, and squeeze in another two during my final year, giving me 11 A* grades and 3 A's. Many of my friends had a similar experience, and many of us are going to Russell Group universities this Autumn. So when you say "low achievers are left to flounder and high achievers aren't stretched", I think it is ludicrous.
Your point about bullying at Henbury is also unfair. Like any other school, there will be unfair treatment of some students by other students. If you expect your children to go to a school where everyone is friends, they all sings songs and are happy all the time, it is extremely naive. That isn't how teenagers function. The senior management team at Henbury does a fantastic job of cracking down on intolerance and bullying before it becomes a major problem, which is as much as any school can be expected to do.
If your point is about the British education system, rather than Henbury, then this is not the place to vent your anger - this article is a celebration of Henbury's success. Henbury has done a fantastic job over the last 8 years, and the school and staff deserve every accolade they get.”
by ronaldclifton
Friday, July 13 2012, 1:23PM
“Absolutely fantastic news for Henbury, some positive press for a change after the battering they had around the time of the Free School set up.
As a parent of an 18 year old that spent 5 happy years at Henbury with fantastic results, I am not aware of any bullying issues.”
by BS9_Mum
Friday, July 13 2012, 10:06AM
“Actual GCSE question - How do you see the Moon, is it through a telescope or a microscope?
- Is it just me or shouldn't children know that at the end of Infant school.
Method of raising a schools league table ranking, aka: Grade inflation.
a) Use exams boards with the easiest questions and who provide 'coaching' on how to play the system.
b) Push all resources into grade D+ students to raise their English and Maths to a C- level
Result: Many more children fall into the category of A-C and the schools league table ranking goes up.
Consequences: Low achievers are left to flounder, high achievers aren't stretched i.e. nobody actually learns anything more.
It is disgraceful that since 2000 England has plummeted down the international rankings. Hopefully the new styled O-Levels will be a lot more rigorous and give children a solid education that means something.
As for Henbury, well done but they still need to deal with all the bullying issues.
Average grade per GCSE: Low attainers F+, Middle attainers D+, High attainers C+..... speaks for itself”
by Samantha1883
Friday, July 13 2012, 7:41AM
“Well done to the staff and pupils and I hope it continues to improve. It seems that if the parents clamouring to set up a "local" free school in Brentry had shown a little patience and faith they could have saved a lot of time and money. If Henbury continues to improve they no doubt will be desperately trying to get their children in there instead!”