Seething and laughing…. Gove gets an ear bashing

Gove gets a roasting on the radio… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12171281 about his plans for a new English baccalaureate.

I would accuse the BBC of clear bias in choosing such a gormless pic to illustrate its new item, but to be fair, most of them are within the gormless spectrum. Gove at his most pompous and patronising (which is very pompous and patronising indeed). “You can construct your own league tables if you want to?” he tells the caller. Eh?

I’ve just received a press release from Bristol City Council, announcing the good news on our GCSE results. See below for details. It seems to be based on traditional measures – pupils getting 5 ‘good’ GCSEs (ie at Grades A-C) and pupils getting 5 ‘good’ GCSEs (ie at Grades A-C) including Maths and English.

I’m not sure how we would have fared under Gove’s new measure… which would require them to achieve 5 ‘good’ GCSEs in English, maths, a language, geography or history and two science qualifications, with lesser credit given for arts, vocational qualifications and other humanities, but will endeavour to find out. Here’s the Local Schools Network take on it.

Summary of 2010 GSCE results:

It was the best ever set of results for the city, with 46 per cent of students getting five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C including English and Maths. This is up 6% on last year, which is the biggest annual increase we’ve seen. Five years ago, only 30 per cent of pupils were achieving five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C including English and Maths, so this is up 16% over a five-year period. Overall, 72 per cent of students gained five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C (up from 61 per cent last year).

Two schools in my patch were singled out as having done particularly well: Bristol Brunel Academy – 45 per cent A*-C including English and Maths, up 20 percentage points on last year, and Bristol Metropolitan Academy – 39 per cent A*-C including English and Maths, up 9 percentage points on last year. Yes, they started from a low base, but they’re out of the National Challenge (schools that score below 30% on this measure) and the improvement is really encouraging. We’re also out of the relegation zone when it comes to national league tables, having till recently languished in the bottom three. Bristol is now ranked 140 out of 151 authorities for GCSEs (5 A*-C inc English and maths) and on all GCSEs Bristol has gone up 19 places from 147 to 128.