Brackenhale headteacher Paul Salter believes GCSE results were a blip
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'Brackenhale's disappointing GCSE results are a blip'
September 07, 2009
Brackenhale's headteacher says his school’s 10 per cent drop in A* to C grade GCSE pass rates is a “disappointing temporary blip” and insists the school continues to improve.
Paul Salter, says the once-struggling school is in a far stronger position than it was a few years ago and is “totally confident” the results will be stronger next year.
The pass rate of pupils achieving five plus A* to C grades at Rectory Lane in Easthampstead fell from 30 per cent last year to 20 per cent in 2009. The school entered 113 pupils for the exams.
In October 2002, the school was put into special measures after Ofsted found 50 per cent of lessons were failing, describing it ‘unsatisfactory’.
However, it came out of special measures two years later with a ‘good’ Ofsted report and its results had been improving year on year.
This year the school also recorded its best ever A-level results, but it has failed to repeat the improvement at GCSE level.
Mr Salter said a huge amount of the school’s pupils got D grades and narrowly missed out on achieving the five A* to C grades.
He said: “There were 277 D grades and we are now going to investigate how close those are to C grades.
“I am totally confident this is a disappointing blip which will be rectified next year.
“In 2003, the A* to C pass rate was nine per cent, in 2004 it was 14 per cent and 20 per cent in 2005.
“I came to the school in 2006 and A* to C pass rate went up to 35 per cent, in 2007 it was 32 per cent and last year it was 30 per cent.
“Each of these is above the Government’s 30 per cent threshold. Also bear in mind this year’s A to G pass rate was 95.5 per cent, which is our best ever.”
Mr Salter told The Standard the school had joined a scheme called PiXL, which stands for Partners in Excellence and specialises in improving GCSE performance.
He added he was also looking at introducing a mentoring scheme providing extra lessons for pupils after school and weekends to “push D grades into Cs and even Bs”.
He said: “The school is in fantastic shape. When I started there were 530 pupils, now there are more than 900 and next year that will go above 1,000.”
Last year, the school’s sixth form had just 10 pupils, but Mr Salter wants a massive expansion.
He said: “We are fully staffed now, which we haven’t always been, and the skills are in place to expand the sixth form. I am looking to have a sixth form of around 150 pupils in the next few years.”
Lesley Heale, director of social care and learning at Bracknell Forest Council, said: “The council and school will continue to work together to analyse this year’s results closely and plan further support.
“While results are below last year’s level, there are many success stories this year and their results show potential for others to achieve well in the future.”
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