Record year for Shropshire primary schoolpupils
Initial figures for this year’s national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds were published today (Tuesday 2 August 2011) showing that Shropshire has achieved record results which are among the best in the West Midlands.
At this stage the information received from the Department for Education is unvalidated, as a number of schools throughout the country are awaiting the outcomes of remarked tests and other queries submitted to the test administrators. However, the data gives an early indication of the success enjoyed by children in Shropshire as they left their primary schools last month to begin their secondary education.
On all measures, Shropshire’s results are ahead of those achieved by children nationally, with more than eight out of ten of them attaining levels at or beyond those expected in English and in mathematics.
When compared to the other authorities in the West Midlands, Shropshire comes second out of 14. When judged against a group of 11 councils described as our statistical neighbours (similar councils in terms of attributes such as size and population) Shropshire is also in second place overall.
The figures also show improvements on performance over previous years. Using the Government’s current preferred measure of pupils achieving level four and above in both English and mathematics combined, Shropshire’s results are at an all-time high. There was a two per cent increase on 2010 figures and results surpassed the previous record, set in 2008. When rated against all councils nationally, the county has risen from 68th to 48th.
Whilst girls continue to enjoy good performance in English, particularly pleasing is the improvement in boys’ performance. This is most apparent in writing, where the boys out-performed their national and regional counterparts by five percentage points.
Anne Gribbin, Shropshire Council’s principal education improvement adviser, said:
“These results reflect the hard work of everyone within our school communities and we would like to thank teachers, support staff, parents and carers, governors, volunteers and, in particular, the children themselves for all their efforts. Everyone can be very proud of these achievements.
“We have worked alongside schools and their communities for more than a year to look at the future of education in Shropshire because we want to see these standards maintained and raised even further. We recognise that in order to do this we must ensure there is a sustainable network of highly effective schools, which will support the needs and aspirations of children and their parents across the county and into the future. As a council, we are committed to working with schools and communities to help bring this about.”
