Southampton comes third worst in school league tables

4:10pm Tuesday 1st December 2009

By Jon Reeve

SOUTHAMPTON’S primary and junior schools have been ranked as the third worst performing in the country.

Only two other councils – Hackney and Medway Towns – recorded worse results than Southampton.

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The city is jointly ranked third worst with three other councils giving them all a ranking of 143rd out of 148 education authorities.

Meanwhile, Hampshire’s primary and junior schools fared significantly better coming 31st in the national league table of councils.

Among the Southampton success stories were Portswood and Highfield primaries – both named among the 200 most “outstanding” schools in England.

They are joined in that list by Winchester’s St Faith’s and Compton All Saints primary schools, as well as Droxford Junior.

All five saw high numbers of pupils achieving level five in their maths, English and science SATs tests – which is above the standard children are expected to have reached by the time they start secondary school.

But it was an overall lack of improvement in the percentage of Southamp-ton youngsters achieving level four targets in the three core subjects that has seen the city slip down the league tables.

But only a slight improvement in the proportion of pupils gaining level four in science, no change in maths, and a slight drop in the number doing so in English, have made that position worse.

Fewer children reached the expected levels in any of the core subjects than the national average.

Hampshire County Council, meanwhile, has risen back up to 31 in the table, having last year dropped to 48th.

Southampton’s schools chief, Cllr Paul Holmes last night insisted there are positives to take from the state of the city’s education system.

“Southampton City Council is fully committed to supporting schools to help them deliver the best outcomes for our pupils at all stages of their learning,” he said.

“Wherever it is appropriate we will robustly challenge schools to ensure progress is accelerated and our position is improved.

“We are absolutely determined that all pupils in the city will receive the best possible education.

“Already in the last year we have seen some great results from our schools – Southampton had almost double the number of schools judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted compared to the national average.

“However, there’s no room for complacency and there is still work to be done to bring our results up to scratch.

“Standards can only be improved alongside better attendance, modern facilities and making the most of our excellent teaching staff.”

Union chief Chris Keates, the general secretary of the NASUWT said the league tables fail to reflect the consistent improvements schools and should be scrapped.

“The tables will no doubt once again provoke the mind numbing debate on SATs which will serve only to undermine the hard work and achievement of pupils and teachers,” she said.”