I started writing this late last night but never posted it so I’ve come back to it this afternoon having been into school and seen the students open their results (and no I didn’t cry this year!) so please forgive the way my tenses change throughout the post. 

Once again, I’m unable to sleep but this time it is because I’m excited. I’m looking forward to the “end” of another tough year. However, I’m mindful that there are some teachers that are absolutely dreading tomorrow – for all the wrong reasons and it shouldn’t be like that! No-one goes to work and thinks “today I’m going to be a really sh1te teacher” and they aren’t rubbish either! When I started teaching I was told: “When the results are great, you’ll get told it was because the students “were gonna do it anyway” and when they aren’t so good it will be all your fault. That’s just the way it is. The sooner you accept that, the better for all involved.” Now what a load of sh1te! It doesn’t have to be that way and in fact it makes me so very sad that there has been a massive shift in ownership for results from it being the student/parent to it being the responsibility of the school/teacher.

I’m digressing so let’s get back on track. I have genuinely found the aftermath of this years results for close friends and colleague horrible and in the same way that last year my Mams words were ringing in my ears when I wrote this post I know that not everyone is as lucky as we’ve been and so I’m genuinely not sharing any of this in a boastful way. I just hope you believe me because it’s true!

I say this year has been tough and it has been but I don’t mean that in a “martyr/please feel sorry for me” kind of way. It has been hard work but there are lots of jobs that are hard work too. I know that! Our year started with a debacle of an Ofsted visit in the Autumn that saw our “outstanding” downgraded during the quality control process. In the Spring term I found out through an FOI (I’ve blogged about it -> here ) that we were 1 of only 4 schools to have had their grades changed downwards through this process. All of this seems so irrelevant now when it was followed up with an acknowledgement that the school was in the Top 100 non-selective state schools in England – we’d only found out because I’m a nosey bint and spend time on the DFE website so had to chase the letter from Nick Gibb. The Summer term also saw the school shortlisted for two TES awards and we only went and flipping won “Maths Team of the Year“!! Still blown away with that one!

So it’s been an eventful year and this Summers exam results are stunning and not just for Maths either! Specifically in Maths, with an eye on the new performance measures and the GCSE we have been working towards improving our levels of progress (they were very good anyway!) and our grade B and beyond, whilst making sure that we don’t forget the bread and butter C+ grades. Anyway JCQ have this morning published the national tables for all subjects (be careful it starts with “aged under 15” results so for “aged 16” you need to scroll down to page 9) and the provisional pass rates for aged 16 are shown below:

You have to remember that the way the exam systems are “managed” by Ofqual. It’s a “zero-sum game” and this is what makes me sad – if one school improves it is at the detriment of another so without further ado I can reveal that we got 85%, against a National figure of 70.5% (yes another number starting with an 8 which makes me very happy!). Even more importantly though is that our levels of progress are amazing -> 84.8% got 3 levels of progress and 48% got “more than expected” levels. The one key measure that I particularly like (not a “proper” measure from a schools accountability perspective!) is that 31.5% of the year group got an A or an A*, a massive improvement on last year! With marking reviews already requested these figures can only go up! You also have to factor in our cohort  – the school is one of three in a town with a Grammar School and a Catholic School – I don’t really need to add any more. Apart from the fact that we are no longer third choice in the town or even the surrounding area! Next challenge is to get to the point of being “over-subscribed” … no pressure there then!! (I say that rather glibly by the way and boss if you’re reading that isn’t a target you can hold me to!!)

In terms of our teaching group – remember, me and Seager co-teach what we’ve called our “super – group” which at its peak can be as many as 48 students. This ensures that the right students are in the right place allowing those in the sets above us to focus on ploughing ahead and getting those top end grades. That aside, our group still managed to get 4 B’s (to prove we aren’t just chasing the C grades!) and the value-added from this group is brilliant, but their “absolute” attainment is dazzling given their starting points at the start of year 11! Before the exams we had lots of discussions about where the Higher/Foundation tier cut off would potentially be for the new GCSE based on the most recent mock results – the drop from Higher tier is a major concern but limiting ambition is not in my nature. Lots more to come on that!

Anyway … an amazing end to the year! I’m already thinking about the new year 11’s … ooh exciting news too about September! I’d forgotten to tell you … oh well I’ve run out of time … I’ll be back.

PS: Once resultsplus has done its “thang” I’ll be back with the QLA templates that I usually do.

PPS: Please, please, please don’t see this as me showing off (my Mam would kick my ar5e!)… I’m not. It has been a real team effort and the whole school has achieved amazing results. #Proud