Trust Performance

Our academies are working ceaselessly to further develop the curriculum offer for all our students and give them the very best opportunities to move to their next stage of education, training or employment.

We are proud to educate significantly more disadvantaged pupils in our academies than is the case in schools across England as a whole and yet our secondary pupils achieved results in 2019 (the most recent examinations sat nationally) which were at least in line with students nationally, demonstrating the commitment of colleagues and pupils across our academies to be the very best they can be.

KS4, The national context:

 There has been a national increase in awarded grades compared with 2020 which was itself an increase on 2019 results. What this looks like nationally is a 1.3% increase in the proportion of all grades that were 5 or above, rising from 61.5% in 2020 to 62.8% this year.  However, level 4-plus grades have remained relatively stable at 79.1% up from 78.8% in 2020.  As widely expected this year, top grades have risen slightly with the proportion of 7 or above grades rising from 27.5% last year, to 30% this year- a rise of 2.5 percentage points.

A similar pattern is evident in our trust results.

As for individual subjects, the proportion of 7 or above grades in maths rose by 1.6% percentage points from 24.3% last year to 25.9% this year, whereas the percentage of grades at level 4 for maths remained stable – up slightly from 77.1% in 2020 to 77.9% in 2021. The outlook for English is a bit different with the proportion of 7 grades up by much more:  2.8 percentage points to 26.3% this year. Grade 4’s remains stable at 80.9%, up slightly from 80.2% last year.  Movement in science was also very slight at grade 4, up from 64.4% in 2020 to 64.7% in 2021.

Our Trust data:

 Although we do not have the percentage of level 4 grades and level 5 grades reported separately, we can see from the percentage of basics reported across our Trust that we have a similar slight rise overall on 2020 figures with 40% of pupils achieving a basics measure of level 5 or above compared to 38% in 2020.  At grade 4 this has moved from 64% of students achieving grade 4 in basics in 2020 to 66% in 2021, which is 1% higher than the figure submitted in data entry 3 in June.

We are pleased to report that no additional scrutiny beyond sampling was carried out by awarding bodies indicating confidence in the assessment and moderation measures put in place across our trust.

The graph below indicated progress 8 for 2019 at each of our academies and gives an indication of progress in 2020 and 2021.

Detailed comparative analysis between 2019, 2020 and 2021 cohorts cannot be undertaken as the datasets are not comparable given the differing methodology for awarding the grades in each of these years.

At Key Stage 4, grades increased substantially across the country in 2020 when compared with 2019 and in many subjects there are expected to be small further increases in 2021. FFT analysis of pre submitted grades clearly demonstrates this trend.

For full details of our trust performance choose the phase from this list:

Here for Secondary

Here for VI Form

Here for Primary

Here for FE

There have been no external assessments in Primary since 2019, our focus is on ensuring pupils build on the extensive support made available during the Covid-19 pandemic to achieve the very best possible outcomes through the high quality curriculum, and excellent teaching and leadership across our Primary Academies.

Our focus in secondary is on ensuring that we fully support our Year 11 and Year 13 2021-22 cohort whilst re-engaging and providing the very best education for all pupils across our academies.

Students entering year 11 this September have been hugely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic nationally. Whilst there is an expectation of lower actual national attainment in 2022, there is however a recognition that we will begin to return towards a more normal examination process in summer 2022. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), has said that the higher grades seen in the past two years, after exams were cancelled, were the result of “extreme circumstances” and cannot be compared to previous years.

ASCL are recommending moving back to an overall distribution of grades equivalent to 2019 for the examinations next summer at both Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5. This and other options are currently under consideration by Ofqual and the DFE alongside adaptations to the examinations and a “plan B” should students be unable to sit the external examinations for Covid related reasons.

“A” level grades saw larger increases and variation nationally and the implications are being carefully considered.