Hackney 2013 GCSE results improve. Pic: Jack Haynes
More than 60 per cent of pupils in Hackney’s secondary schools have achieved five or more A-star to C grades in their 2013 GCSE exams, placing them above the national average.
In figures issued by Hackney Council and Hackney Learning Trust, Hackney schools performed above the national average of 60.6 per cent in GCSE results, and saw a 2 per cent increase from 2012 in the number of five A-star to C students.
Children from less privileged backgrounds also performed well. Almost half of pupils that received free school meals achieved five or more A-star to C grades, which was well above the national average of 38.1 per cent.
Councillor Rita Krishna, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services, said: “It’s a priority for us that every child in Hackney is given the best possible start in life, no matter what their background, and the most important factor in that is education.”
Of the eight secondary schools inspected by Ofsted in 2013, four were classed as “good,” with the remaining three academies classed as “outstanding.” The Lubavitch Senior Girls’ School was the only school that “required improvement.”
Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney Downs, which was opened 10 years ago with the support of former PM Tony Blair, has had Hackney’s most consistent GCSE results since 2004.
The academy has been ranked first in sustained achievement by Ofsted and recently listed by David Laws MP, Minister of State for Schools, in the “top one hundred non-selective state schools showing grade-sustained improvement in its exam results.”
Principal Peter Hughes said: “We do the simple things well. Every lesson is an outstanding lesson with high standards of teaching and [students’] good behaviour.”
“We surpassed the 2011 Sutton Trust evaluation that people from Hackney are ‘ten times less likely to go to Oxbridge compared to schools in Fulham and Hammersmith,’” he continued.
This year the school has had four offers for pupils to go to Oxford.
Principal Helen Freeman of Lubavitch Senior Girls’ School could not be reached for comment on the results of Ofsted’s inspection.
