Spilsby head celebrates ‘best ever’ GCSE results

Staff at King Edward VI Academy in Spilsby have hailed their ‘best ever’ success in students gaining 5 A*-C GCSE grades including English and Maths.

The school league tables, which were published recently, showed that 66 per cent of the students achieved the coveted grades – which the Academy said was higher than both county and national averages.

Staff at the Academy added that the school led the way as one of the most improved schools in the county, and thanked the efforts of students and staff, ably supported by parents.

Principal, Margaret Reeve, said: “Although it is a great credit to the efforts of students to see our very much improved position in national league tables, a higher position in league tables is not an incentive for achieving good results.

“The efforts of all staff were in supporting students by good quality teaching and guidance to improve their life chances by enabling them to meet or surpass their potential.”

She warned of the ‘undue concentration’ on league tables as an action which could distort what headteachers, teachers and students are doing by only putting certain students in for certain exams or taking low achievers out of tests altogether.

She warned that the fact that league table information is ‘always out of date’ is not a useful indicator to parents of future performance.

She added: “Past performance does not guarantee future results. However, a concentration on the core business of high quality teaching and learning enables all schools to get their best out of the students in their care.”