Rise in number of Plymouth schools judged 'good' or 'outstanding'

Plymouth City Council report that the number of schools and nurseries judged to be good or outstanding by government standards watchdog Ofsted has reached an all-time high in Plymouth.

The Council have taken a snapshot from April this year which showed that 80 per cent of Plymouth primary and secondary schools were judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ for their overall performance on inspection. This compared with 69 per cent in 2012 – an increase of 11 per cent.

And there’s more good news for the city. 94 per cent of early years settings (nurseries, children’s centres and pre-schools) achieved either good or outstanding grades from Ofsted. This compares with 87 per cent in 2012 - that’s an increase of 7.1 per cent.

Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “To have 11 per cent more Plymouth schools receiving a 'good’ or ‘outstanding’ grade within a year is truly amazing. We are incredibly proud of the achievements of our schools and early years settings, as they continue to strive for excellence and improve their performance. This progress could not have been achieved without the fantastic efforts and enthusiasm from children and young people in the city.

“As a Council, it is our role to challenge performance and support schools to continue to improve. This is a role we take extremely seriously and indeed raising standards made up two of the 100 pledges we made to residents last May. I’m pleased that we can say those aims have been achieved within our first year in office, but I’m mindful that this particular ambition will never truly end. We will always want to better ourselves and improve our education system so that we ensure children and young people in Plymouth reach their full potential.”

Plymouth currently has no secondary or primary schools judged to be inadequate, and likewise there are no inadequate early years settings.

GCSE and A level results improve year on year in-line with national averages and Plymouth performs above its statistical neighbours including: Portsmouth, Torbay, Southampton, Bournemouth and Sheffield.

Young people achieving five GCSEs from A*-C (including English and maths) in Plymouth is 1.4 per cent higher than its statistical neighbour average. The percentage of students making good progress in GCSE English is 4 per cent above the statistical neighbour average.

Councillor Williams summed up by saying: “The face of education is changing all across England and we are looking at how we can best work with schools in the future to ensure we continue our upward trend of improvement. We have a fantastic range of schools on offer and talented, dedicated staff working in them. I look forward to seeing our future results and watching young Plymouth people grow into highly successful members of society.”