Last updated at 16:32, Thursday, 24 January 2013

A PRIVATE Furness school bidding to become a free school has maintained its standing as one of Cumbria’s best performing GCSE providers.

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• Click here to read the South Cumbria secondary schools and colleges league table

The Department for Education has today published the county league tables for secondary schools and colleges.

Chetwynde School, in Barrow, is second highest in the Cumbria table for the proportion of students achieving five or more A* to C, including English and maths.

The government figures say 85 per cent of students gained this level, and 94 per cent achieved at least five GCSEs at A* to C grades.

But Chetwynde School has contacted the government to correct the data as it says its figures should actually be higher.

School leaders said the five A* to C, including English and maths, pass rate should be 91 per cent, and 97 per cent for five A* to C grades.

The results are down on the 100 per cent pass rates of the 2011 GCSE group.

Chetwynde also contacted the government two years ago when its GCSE results were published slightly higher than they should have been.

This summer the school had a strong A-Level performance with an overall 100 per cent pass rate, and 36 per cent of the grades being A*s and As. The average point score per examination entry was 228.1.

Chetwynde headteacher Russell Collier said: “We are incredibly pleased with the results.

“It highlights the quality of the education we provide at Chetwynde and the hard work and commitment of our students, staff and parents.”

Across all Furness schools the GCSE pass rate with English and maths was down on the previous year.

Walney School is at the base of the Cumbria table having the second lowest proportion of students gaining five or more A* to C grades, including English and maths. The pass rate was 32 per cent. This was down 15 percentage points on the 2011 results.

Walney School was just one of the local schools which appealed against the controversial English GCSE marking, after the grade boundaries were raised.

It was dubbed a “fiasco” with thousands of students missing out on C grades.

Furness Academy, Barrow’s biggest secondary school, had a pass rate of 35 per cent for students achieving A* to C, including English and maths, this was down 14 percentage points on the previous year.

Furness Academy made appeals over some of the English and maths grading.

Barrow Sixth Form College, Cumbria’s biggest A-Level provider, had a successful year with an overall pass rate of 98.4 per cent.

The college saw 47 per cent of the grades being A* to Bs. There was a 100 per cent pass rate in 25 of the 35 A-Level subjects offered.

First published at 16:25, Thursday, 24 January 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk