Guernsey Press

Island should aim higher – Education vice-president

THE recent GCSE results from Bailiwick students worsened for the first time since 2015, and teachers have suggested that distraction and uncertainty over the future of education has not helped.

Published
Education vice-president Richard Graham said reversing the direction of travel on the proposed two 11-18 school model would be ‘highly irresponsible’. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 25593066)

The percentage of Bailiwick students that received five A*-C (or 9-4) grades including English and maths was 63.9%, compared to 68.4% last year.

Between 2012 and 2016 the Bailiwick performed marginally better than UK schools, but since 2017 the UK has used a different measure to track progress so it is no longer possible to make statistical comparisons.

Executive head teacher of secondary schools in Guernsey Liz Coffey congratulated students, and appealed for a united front and for education not to be used as a ‘political football’.

La Mare de Carteret High School, which had previously experienced a huge turn-around, posted disappointing results, 39.5% of students received five A*-C grades including English and maths, that was down from 58% the previous

year.

It is thought that the school underperformed in maths, and that issue is being looked into.

Leapfrogging to the top of the table of local secondary schools was Les Beaucamps High School, it matched last year’s best ever results with 53% of students getting five A*-Cs, including English and maths.

St Sampson’s High School also sustained last year’s results with 48% achieving the benchmark measure.

There was some shock at the Grammar School because results slipped, with 88.6% of students getting the benchmark – a fall of more than 10% on last year.

The headline measure of five grades A*-C including English and maths has been criticised by some educationalists as too narrow focused, and analysis of the five grades A*-C without the stipulation to include English and maths shows a smaller fall back

in the performance of local students.

However, in this measurement, La Mare de Carteret High dropped from 68.1% of students achieving those grades last year, to 50.6% this year.

The disappointing results have come as the island’s schools are on the cusp of the biggest overhaul in generations by moving to a proposed two 11-18 comprehensive school model.

In an open letter to the Guernsey Press, vice-president of Education Richard Graham has responded to common criticisms of the two large comprehensive schools.

‘Given Guernsey’s social and cultural make-up, we should aim much higher.’

‘That is not a criticism of recent generations of students and their teachers; far from it.’

‘Rather, it is the educational model itself which has made the task of some of our students and teachers that much harder than it needed to be.’

‘We need to raise our standards, in my view to those of the top 100 English, state, comprehensive schools, all of which out-perform Guernsey by a significant margin and which themselves match

the highest international standards.’

The success of the local colleges, which represent a wide range of academic standards, are highlighted by Deputy Graham as examples of what comprehensive schools can achieve.

Deputy Graham added that there was ‘nothing to fear but fear itself’ and to consider reversing the direction of travel now would be ‘highly irresponsible’ and the ‘worst possible disservice’ to those who learn and teach in local schools.