County Pleased With Exam Progress (Press Release)

OXFORDSHIRE’S GCSE pass rate has risen and the number of pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and maths, has risen according to provisional figures released today.

56.4 per cent of the county?s pupils achieved five or more A*-C passes at GCSE, an increase of two percentage points on last year and broadly in line with the national average for state schools (57%).

The figures, including English and maths, also show improvement with 47.3 per cent making the grade, compared with 43.8 per cent nationally.

Most Oxfordshire schools have made real progress under data analysis produced by the Fischer Family Trust (FFT) that the county uses, among others, to measure performance.

This shows how individual pupils should perform by taking their prior attainment into account together with factors such as gender, ethnicity, special educational needs, entitlement to free school meals, month of birth and progress.

Initial FFT data show the overwhelming majority of secondary schools did better or as well as expected on the 5+A*-C including English and maths measure.

The provisional A-level results also show an improvement with the average point score per entry at 78.9 up from 77.1 in 2005. The average point score per student rose from 257 to 264 (these figures include further education colleges as well as Oxfordshire state schools)

The county council?s Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement, Councillor Michael Waine, said: ?The overall picture is very promising and I am delighted that together our schools have improved on last year?s performance. This is a reflection of all the hard work of students, teaching staff and the whole school community.
?We are keen to build on this still further which is one of the reasons why we are placing a strong focus on Fischer Family Trust data which gives a real insight into the progress pupils are making from one year to the next.?