Our exam results will get better, says head (From The Oxford Times)

Our exam results will get better, says head

3:00pm Friday 14th September 2012 in News By Sam McGregor, covering Bicester. Call me on 01869 250197

A HEADTEACHER is “confident” results at his Bicester school will improve quickly.

The move comes after a stark warning by Bicester Community College associate governor Michael Waine who said the school could face “external inter- vention” if results did not improve.

Former headteacher and Oxfordshire county councillor Mr Waine made the comments after the Queen’s Avenue school’s “extremely disappointing” GCSE results.

The proportion of pupils achieving A* to Cs, including English and maths, rose by one per cent to 48 per cent.

At the town’s other secondary school, The Cooper School, staff and pupils celebrated their best results with 66 per cent achieving A* to C, including English and maths.

But college principal Jason Clarke has responded.

He said: “The overall performance was disappointing but not unexpected, whilst there was a small impact of the national English Language grades issue, this was not significant.

“All members of the college community have a clear understanding of our performance and the need to raise attainment.

“Last week we welcomed 22 new teaching staff to our ranks adding a wealth of experience from a wide range of teaching establishments across the country to our existing academic team’s expertise.

“The focus of our inset days has been ensuring that lessons are of the highest quality and this is an expectation shared by all of our teachers.”

He said the school had undergone “significant” changes since its last Ofsted inspection in 2010 which had given it clear targets for improvement.

Mr Clarke said: “As the third year under new leadership commences, we are confident that the foundations laid during the course of the last two years will allow us to take a significant step in realising the potential of all members of our community.

“We anticipate that our 2012-13 results will reflect more accurately the quality of education currently offered at Bicester Community College. All of our governors, including Mr Waine as an associate governor, are fully aware of and endorse the measures being implemented to reach this goal.

“We acknowledge there is a need to improve and we are confident that we are taking the right steps to secure sustainable improvement across the college.

“To this end, we continue to work closely with our partner schools to share best practice and ensure our staff are provided with a wide range of opportunities to develop their expertise.”

The school also had its GCSE success stories, with five pupils getting 10 or more grade A* or A.

Mr Clarke invited people to attend an open evening at the school on Wednesday, September 26, where they could see first hand the work of staff and students.