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SCHOOLS in Islington remain rooted to the bottom of inner London league tables despite a dramatic improvement in exam results.
More than half of pupils failed to gain five good GCSEs (grades A*-C including English and maths), while a third failed to achieve five grades A*-C.
But three schools – Holloway School, Highbury Grove and IAMS, severely criticised two years ago – have improved.
New government figures show the borough’s schools overall are getting better at GCSE level at twice the national rate. But they also reveal that Islington remains the worst performing area in inner London.
The ruling Lib Dems were warned that their attempts to turn around the results were too little, too late.
However, council chiefs were yesterday (Thursday) praising the private company in charge of Islington’s education department.
Islington schools chief Councillor Paula Belford said: “The figures confirm that ­secondary education in Islington is continuing to improve, as it has been for some years now. Once again congratulations to students, parents, teachers, carers and Cambridge Education @ Islington who are seeing all their hard work paying off with these great results.” But the warm words were tempered by critics who warned that Islington is still struggling to perform as well as other boroughs, such as neighbouring Camden.
Councillor Richard Watts, Islington Labour spokesman for children, said: “Ten years after the Lib Dems promised to get us off the bottom of the league, we’re still at the bottom. They have just run out of ideas.”
But, he added: “I would like to congratulate Islington’s children and schools for these results.
“I’m pleased to see the massive investment in education from the Labour government is helping kids to fulfil their potential.”
The figures are particularly encouraging for Holloway School, Highbury Grove and Islington Arts and Media School who just two years ago were put on a government list which threatened to seize control of the schools if results did not improve.
Education minister Ed Balls warned last year that any schools remaining below a set level in 2011 could be closed, taken out of the control of the local authority and run by private sponsors as city academies.
Now, all three schools have climbed above the required 30 per cent pass rate for grades A*-C including English and maths, making leaps in their results over the past two years. Holloway School has jumped 10 points to (37 per cent), Highbury Grove is up 17 (to 42 per cent) and IAMS has climbed 13 (to 40 per cent).
But the results were not so good for Highbury Fields, which has dropped five points to 36 in the past year.
And the borough’s first academy, City Academy Islington, has come seventh out of Islington’s nine secondary schools, with a lowly 38 per cent.
Schools were most excited about the CVA (Contextual Value Added) scores, which measure how much a pupil improves during their time at the school.
Every school in Islington was shown to have “added value” to pupils, with St Aloysius coming in the top 3 per cent of the country.
This is widely recognised as being a more accurate measure, because it takes pupil backgrounds into consideration.
Islington NUT assistant branch secretary Ken Muller said: “CVA results are more meaningful than the raw results because raw results just tell you how posh an area the school is in. The results are a tribute to the hard work of staff and pupils. It shows what locally accountable comprehensive state schools can achieve and that they don’t need to become academies to improve.”
Deputy headteacher at St Aloysius Danny Coyle said: “The results are stunning. For an Islington school with an Islington intake it’s an amazing achievement, specially considering this school was in special measures seven years ago.”
Highbury Grove, Holloway, IAMS and St Aloysius’ College progressed at a faster rate than the borough average.
Holloway School headteacher Bob Hamlyn, said: “I’m really pleased with these GCSE results which were achieved in not ideal circumstances, as building works to improve the school were taking place around us.
“Holloway has risen up the performance tables and we’re now in the top 6 per cent of schools nationally for adding value to students’ attainment. That’s something students, staff and the whole school community can be proud of.”
RÓISÍN GADELRAB