Sutton schools best at GCSE

Students' achievements reflect on education authorities

Buckinghamshire has been toppled as the local education authority in mainland England with the best performing schools at GCSE level.

The borough of Sutton in Surrey claims top spot in this year's school league tables, with 63.4% of its students getting the top A*-C grades.

Rutland and Buckinghamshire tie for next place with 61.6%.

A higher proportion of Buckinghamshire's students failed to get any exam passes at all - but it has 10 times as many secondary schools.

Click here to see how authorities compare.
Click here for the main school tables.

The leader of Sutton council, Mike Cooper, said: "I am delighted with these results and extend my congratulations to all the students in our schools who have again done so well.

"The results reflect all the hard work and commitment by students, teachers and our staff."

Across-the-board success

The council is particularly pleased because on a broader measure of all its students' GCSE performance - the average point score of 46.6, against a national average of 38.5 - Sutton also comes top in mainland England.

Its director of education, Ian Birnbaum, said the authority had worked very closely with its 13 secondary schools over a number of years.

"We have pursued something we call 'academic tutoring' which is a link between target setting at school level and individual target setting. That's obviously helped.

"But our schools are good schools. Witness the tremendous demand there is for them. So it's an acknowledgement of how good education is in Sutton."

Dr Birnbaum said they would not be resting on their laurels, however.

"Targets that we had set for two years hence are virtually met now so we need to go back to our schools and look for some new ones, and schools will want to do that."

Hull still struggling

Top overall for the fifth year is the tiny Isles of Scilly education authority - but it has only one secondary school, where 13 children took their GCSEs this year, which is regarded as an unreliably small number statistically.

The Isles of Scilly schools advisor, Peter Clifton, said small class sizes were a great advantage.

"We also have a very supportive community which still believes in education and gets behind the work the students do."

At the bottom of the LEA table once again is Kingston upon Hull, only 24.4% of whose students managed five or more top GCSEs.

Its truancy rate is one of the highest in England and is almost three times the national average.

The authority said things were now improving in earlier school years but said bright pupils tended to leave after primary school.

Poor truancy record

The assistant director of education, Andrew Swallow, said: "We have actually hit a majority of our targets. Unfortunately, A*-C GCSE passes is not one of them.

"Of course, it is unacceptable and we're very disappointed but we've done the analysis and we're extremely confident there is room for quick improvement in the areas needed."

But he said a significant factor was that every year at the end of primary schooling more than 200 pupils left the area for social reasons and did not go into its secondary schools.

"These are children who have the potential to get five A to C grades at GCSE," he said.

"The teaching in Hull schools was deemed better than national standards in a government report this year."

Truancy rates were the third highest in the country after Knowsley - the next worst area on GCSE performance - and Westminster.

According to the official government measure, the proportion of half-days lost to unauthorised absence in Hull schools was 2.9%.

"We haven't tackled the issue of truancy with parents," Mr Swallow said. "We need a partnership which works because if 40% of some school years are not at school they can't learn anything."

The table below shows all England's education authorities ranked on the percentage of their pupils who got at least five GCSE grades A*-C, with the percentage who got none and the unauthorised absence rate. City of London is excluded - it has no secondary schools.

Click the name of any authority for details on all the schools in its area, including independent schools.

LEA	GCSEs	none	abs.
Isles of Scilly	76.9	0.0	0.1
Sutton	63.4	3.5	0.5
Rutland	61.6	0.5	0.6
Buckinghamshire	61.6	4.2	0.5
Kingston-upon-Thames	61.3	6.9	1.0
Wokingham	59.9	3.7	0.5
Redbridge	59.6	0.8	0.7
Poole	59.5	3.1	0.6
Bromley	59.4	3.4	0.6
North Yorkshire	59.3	2.8	0.5
Windsor and Maidenhead	59.2	2.4	0.6
Surrey	57.6	4.3	0.8
Barnet	57.5	4.8	1.1
Harrow	57.2	3.3	0.7
Bath and NE Somerset	57.1	3.1	0.6
Cheshire	57.0	3.4	0.8
Gloucestershire	56.9	3.0	0.5
Shropshire	56.4	3.0	0.6
Trafford	56.4	3.4	0.8
West Berkshire	56.0	3.8	0.4
Havering	55.9	3.8	0.5
Wiltshire	55.5	4.4	0.6
Hertfordshire	55.4	4.2	0.7
Somerset	55.3	3.2	0.5
Solihull	55.1	3.5	0.5
Hampshire	54.9	3.6	0.9
Dorset	54.6	4.4	0.7
West Sussex	54.5	3.9	0.7
North Somerset	53.4	3.8	0.7
Herefordshire	53.4	3.8	0.7
Suffolk	53.3	3.8	0.8
Southend	53.3	5.4	1.4
Bury	53.0	2.2	0.5
Cornwall	52.6	3.3	0.4
York City	52.6	4.4	1.2
Lincolnshire	52.6	4.9	0.8
Cambridgeshire	51.7	5.1	0.8
Stockport	51.7	5.8	1.0
Kent	51.3	4.1	0.6
Slough	51.3	4.2	1.3
Richmond-upon-Thames	51.1	4.4	1.8
East Sussex	51.0	3.9	1.2
Camden	51.0	5.9	1.6
Essex	50.8	4.1	0.9
Cumbria	50.6	4.3	0.6
Warrington	50.5	2.7	0.6
Oxfordshire	50.3	5.2	1.4
Torbay	50.3	5.5	1.0
Derbyshire	49.9	4.0	1.0
East Riding of Yorks	49.9	4.7	0.9
Hammersmith and Fulham	49.8	0.6	2.3
Bexley	49.7	4.5	1.1
Lancashire	49.6	4.3	0.9
Northumberland	49.6	5.2	0.9
Warwickshire	49.5	4.8	0.7
Bedfordshire	49.4	4.8	0.9
national averages	49.2	5.6	1.0
Devon	49.1	3.8	1.0
Wirral	48.7	6.1	0.6
Leicestershire	48.5	4.6	2.3
Dudley	48.4	3.6	0.8
Sefton	48.4	4.8	0.7
Norfolk	48.2	5.0	0.9
Worcestershire	48.2	5.8	1.1
Staffordshire	48.1	4.3	0.6
Telford and Wrekin	48.1	5.2	0.9
Bournemouth	48.1	5.6	0.8
Hillingdon	47.9	4.8	1.5
Kensington and Chelsea	47.9	10.8	1.8
Northamptonshire	47.8	5.7	0.9
South Gloucestershire	47.7	3.8	1.4
Plymouth, City of	47.5	4.3	0.6
St Helens	47.4	7.6	1.1
Brent	47.3	3.8	1.0
Wigan	46.7	5.3	1.1
Bracknell Forest	46.6	3.9	0.9
Hounslow	46.5	4.2	1.0
Ealing	46.1	1.5	1.2
Enfield	46.1	2.9	1.7
Reading	45.7	10.4	1.0
Redcar and Cleveland	45.6	5.7	1.1
North Tyneside	45.2	5.6	0.8
Darlington	45.0	4.4	1.6
Gateshead	45.0	8.4	1.3
Isle of Wight	44.8	6.0	1.5
Nottinghamshire	44.3	5.5	1.4
Swindon	44.1	6.1	0.8
North Lincolnshire	43.8	3.0	1.0
Kirklees	43.8	6.3	1.5
Stockton-on-Tees	43.7	4.5	0.8
Medway	43.7	4.9	1.0
Brighton and Hove	43.7	6.9	1.1
Calderdale	43.6	5.3	0.7
Wakefield	43.2	4.7	0.7
Croydon	42.6	3.2	0.7
Oldham	42.4	5.9	1.5
Tameside	42.1	3.9	1.2
Peterborough City	41.8	6.0	0.9
Wandsworth	41.6	3.0	1.0
Bolton	41.3	5.3	1.2
Derby City	41.3	6.5	0.9
Rotherham	41.1	5.4	1.2
Sheffield	41.1	8.5	1.9
Milton Keynes	41.0	6.4	0.6
Birmingham	40.8	5.8	1.6
Coventry	40.8	7.5	1.3
Merton	40.5	7.4	2.1
Leeds	40.4	8.3	2.0
Durham	40.3	6.2	1.1
Blackburn with Darwen	40.0	6.7	1.4
Southampton	39.8	5.2	1.2
Luton	39.7	3.2	0.9
Thurrock	39.7	6.3	1.3
Waltham Forest	39.7	6.5	1.4
South Tyneside	39.3	5.4	0.5
Wolverhampton	38.7	5.8	1.3
Sunderland	38.4	4.8	1.0
Barking and Dagenham	38.3	3.0	1.7
Rochdale	37.9	7.4	1.4
Halton	37.7	3.7	1.6
Walsall	37.0	6.7	0.8
Doncaster	36.8	8.6	2.3
Westminster	36.7	5.3	3.1
Newham	36.3	0.0	2.7
Blackpool	36.1	6.3	1.9
North East Lincolnshire	35.8	6.7	1.8
Hartlepool	35.7	6.8	1.6
Salford	35.5	4.4	1.3
Liverpool	35.3	8.1	1.6
Newcastle-upon-Tyne	35.0	11.0	1.6
Barnsley	34.9	7.2	1.9
Lewisham	34.8	6.0	2.8
Middlesbrough	34.6	9.6	1.4
Leicester City	34.1	7.2	1.9
Portsmouth	34.0	7.5	1.9
Stoke-on-Trent	33.8	6.1	1.2
Bradford	33.8	8.4	2.6
Tower Hamlets	32.7	2.5	2.5
Greenwich	32.4	6.9	2.0
Hackney	32.2	6.8	2.2
Southwark	32.1	2.0	1.9
Lambeth	31.7	3.0	1.1
Sandwell	31.7	7.9	1.6
Bristol City	31.2	10.4	2.3
Haringey	30.3	7.0	2.3
Manchester	30.3	7.3	2.0
Nottingham City	28.7	11.0	2.8
Islington	26.5	8.3	2.0
Knowsley	25.0	11.3	3.2
Kingston upon Hull City	24.4	10.5	2.9

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