Secondary schools cause concern

Radclyffe School

The Radclyffe School — recently judged “outstanding” by Ofsted — was the venue for the report launch, But the secondary school system as a whole has been highlighted as an area of concern in Oldham within the report.

Oldham is ranked 120th out of 152 local authorities in England for pupils achieving five A*-C GCSE grades.

Statistics from September show only a third of Oldham’s secondary schools gained a “good” or “oustanding” Ofsted rating, well below the national 74 per cent. But the borough’s primary schools are doing an excellent job of developing pupils, who make higher than average progress between years three and six.

In September an impressive 87 per cent of Oldham primary schools had gained “good’ or “outstanding” Ofsted ratings, putting the borough two per cent above the national average.

Primary school performance is particularly impressive considering children in the borough are entering the education system at a lower development level than the national averages - as is common for boroughs like Oldham, which have higher levels of deprivation.

A-Level students also make fantastic progress after leaving secondary school — 80 per cent gained three passes in 2013-14 compared with the national average of 78 per cent.