Quality teaching hailed at schools

Propps Hall head teacher Gillian Kay with pupils (clockwise from back left) Thomas Dennis, Luke Campbell, Beth Lloyd, Mia Flanagan, Paige Stopford and Owen Williams.

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

Propps Hall join top scorers in Maths and English
PROPPS Hall Primary is celebrating the biggest jump in results in this year’s Oldham school performance tables

Every 11 year old at the Failsworth school reached the required standard for their age (level 4) in this year’s national English and maths tests — up from 63 per cent in 2011.

Headteacher Gillian Kay said: “We are really pleased with the progress the children are making. The high quality teaching and learning, and hard work from both the adults and children, has really made a difference.”

But today’s performance tables show mixed results for the borough’s schools.

Alt is in the bottom 20 schools nationally and another four schools feature in the bottom 200: Horton Mill, St Thomas’ Werneth, St Luke’s and Westwood.

Alt headteacher Robert Jackson said:”We are all very disappointed by today’s league tables but we are determined that the future league tables will reflect the hard work that is going on here.

“The current year 6 are doing well and our recent Ofsted showed that progress is already being made. Our pupils deserve the best education they can get and we are all working to make that happen.

“The school has had considerable turbulence in recent years but we are now in a period of stability and improvement is well underway.”

Two more Oldham schools achieved perfect results: St Chad’s, Uppermill, for the second year running while St Joseph’s, Shaw, has maintained a flawless record since 2009. Both are in the country’s top 200 schools.

St Joseph’s has the most number of pupils reaching level 5, that expected at the age of 14, in English and maths in Oldham. It is also one of four schools in the borough where every pupil progressed by at least two levels in both subjects.

Head teacher Andy Dickinson praised his pupils, fantastic parental support and staff but added: “As a headteacher I do hold the league tables in contempt.

“You can’t compare the background of our pupils in Shaw and Royton to the backgrounds of children in other parts of Oldham and their prior attainment.

“I always say look at pupils’ progress and not results.”



TODAY’S primary school league tables revealed that across Oldham 86 per cent of pupils reached level 4 in English and 85 per cent in maths, beating the national averages in both. Oldham is ranked 73rd out of 152 local authorities.
Only Roundthorn, St Thomas’ Werneth, and Holy Rosary, Fitton Hill, saw their results increase every year since 2009, the Government’s measure of improvement. But the number has been affected by schools which boycotted the tests in 2010.

Stoneleigh Academy has the second biggest jump in results since last year, up from 50 per cent to 78.

It become an academy in September and is sponsored by Oldham College.

The biggest drop in results were at Horton Mill (83 to 52 per cent) and St Anne’s Royton (93 to 66 per cent) Neither commented.

l ST Matthew’s has no results posted because it was only created in September when St Matthew’s Infant and Chadderton Hall junior schools merged. Christ Church, Denshaw, has too few pupils to be included.


The full table is available in our print and eChron editions