VOTE: Bognor MP hits out at standards in town's schools

Speaking in his role as the shadow schools minister, the Conservative MP said he was 'very worried' by levels of teenagers failing to make the grade in English and maths.

With a background of a continuing recession affecting the job market, employers are demanding ever-higher levels of qualifications '“ leaving many school leavers with poorer grades struggling to find work.

The Tory MP's fears were expressed over results for exams sat last summer showing three of the area's four secondary schools '“ Westergate Community School, Bognor Regis Community College and Felpham Community College '“ fell below the West Sussex average of 52 per cent of pupils gaining A-C passes including English and maths.

Only St Philip Howard Catholic High School posted better than average results, as 67 per cent of pupils gained five good grades.

Minimum grades

Among the lowest in the area was Bognor Regis Community College, which just made the government's basic target of 30 per cent achieving the minimum core subject target grades.

Mr Gibb said: "Headteachers in Bognor are clearly determined to raise standards, but these latest league table figures demonstrate more does need to be done to raise standards further.

"We need to focus on pupil behaviour and I believe children fare better when they are taught in groups of similar ability through setting.

"We need to make sure children leaving primary school are reading fluently. They need to have a grasp of maths and know their times tables," said Mr Gibb, who believed teachers must be allowed to dedicate more time to hone pupils' reading and writing skills.

"I believe league tables are valuable as they show which local authorities are having problems.

"We can then focus on raising the standards '“ they cannot just go on undetected."

Raising standards

The MP who was optimistic the new building at Bognor Regis Community College would raise attainment levels.

But his fears were shared by Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Simon McDougall, who said the present trend of English and maths results was 'becoming a major concern'.

David Jones, head of Bognor Regis Community College, said league tables did not make a fair comparison between secondary schools of varying resources. He praised pupils' achievements as 46 per cent gained five A-C grades other than English and maths.

He said: "Bognor Regis Community College gained its best GCSE results in 2009 both in respect of average points score (taking into account the results of all students) and numbers gaining five or more higher grades.

"While our priority is always to celebrate success, we equally focus on how we might further raise attainment."

Best results

Pat Ashman, head of Felpham Community College, which scored 43 per cent of its pupils at A-C including English and maths, was pleased with the latest figures.

She said: "The results are an improvement on last year and show we are on an upward trajectory.

"We are expecting our best-ever results this year We have a number of interventions in place to help pupils, including one-to-one mentoring and revision sessions.

Greater achievements

"Head of Westergate Community School Steve Nelmes was also pleased with its results.

He said: "Our results have shown a constant improvement over the past few years which we are expecting to see continue.

"Our music results were particularly good with 100 per cent of pupils gaining A-C grades, which we are really happy with."

Mr Nelmes believed the average attainment levels of today's pupils were relatively far greater than when he started teaching more than two decades ago.

Have your say

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