Latest GSCE league tables for Dewsbury and Mirfield

Both Mirfield Free Grammar (MFG) and Castle Hall School earned places in the top 10 for Kirklees when it came to pupils gaining five or more A* to C grade GCSEs, including English and maths.

The proportion of pupils meeting the benchmark in 2010 were 62 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.

In Dewsbury, only St John Fisher Catholic High School beat the Kirklees average of 52.8 per cent when 53 per cent of its pupils got top grades.

But four of the schools saw their results improve with St John Fisher, Birkdale High and Thornhill High’s pass rate going up by at least 14 per cent.

MFG headteacher Lorraine Barker said: “We’re absolutely delighted with the achievements of our students again this year.

“Congratulations must also go to our dedicated and hard working staff. It’s the result of real team work between us and the students.”

Castle Hall headteacher Andy Pugh said he was really pleased with the school’s exam record and the excellent team effort which had brought the success.

“Our scores on all measures are very positive, and some place us well above national averages,” he said.

The top results in the district were recorded at Heckmondwike Grammar where 100 per cent of pupils got at least five A* to C grades, including English and maths.

At the other end of the table, Fartown High School had the lowest number of pupils meeting the benchmark at 31 per cent followed by Earlsheaton Technology College (ETC) with 32 per cent.

ETC also had the highest rate of persistent absence in Dewsbury and Mirfield with a figure of 8.1 per cent, compared to 3.3 per cent at Castle Hall and Westborough High.

Heckmondwike Grammar had the lowest level of persistent absence at 0.5 per cent, while Nether Hall Learning Campus High School’s figure was 10.9 per cent.

ETC head Paul Levey said: “We set our targets every year based on what the top 25 per cent of schools might achieve and have been successful in beating that target for the past four years. However, 2010 proved to be disappointing. With a weaker year group we fell six per cent short of the target entirely because a number of students just missed a Grade C in English.”

He said attendance had improved from 86 per cent in 1999 to 91 per cent recently.

He added that ETC was still determined and optimistic about its future despite the disappointment of Kirklees missing out on £200m in funding for North Kirklees secondary schools when the government scrapped its Building Schools for the Future programme.

This week, A Level league tables for the district were also published.

The best results were at Heckmondwike Grammar where the average A Level points score per candidate was 1107.8 and the lowest were at Kirklees College with an average points score of 614.8 per candidate.

Mirfield Free Grammar pupils achieved an average score of 690.6, while the average score at St John Fisher was 819.2.

Pick up a copy of this week’s Reporter to see results for all Mirfield and Dewsbury secondary schools.