Exam results put spotlight on poorly performing schools

The figure is well below the national average of 45 per cent and also reveals a huge gap between the performance of secondary schools in the town, with St George’s School in Marton easily the best performing school.

Its exam results show seven out of 10 pupils achieved at least five GCSEs including English and maths. All the other secondary schools in Blackpool achieved results below the national average, prompting alarm among council education chiefs.

The next best performing school was Highfield where 30 per cent of pupils passed at least five GCSEs including English and maths (compared to the national average of 45 per cent), while 51 per cent of pupils at St Mary’s passed at least four GCSEs including English and maths (national average 64 per cent).

St George’s was also the only secondary school with a positive Progress 8 figure – which measures the progress pupils make from Key Stage 2 in primary school up to the end of their GCSEs in Key Stage 4.

The figures were presented to a meeting of the council’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee as part of a report which said most of the town’s secondary schools were performing “well below national averages”.

The report added: “The Progress 8 scores are particularly concerning with a wide range of outcomes for children in Blackpool depending on which school they attend.”

The meeting was told the council has fewer powers as all Blackpool’s secondary schools are run by academy trusts.

Graeme Dow, assistant director for education at the council, said the results for South Shore Academy were “a shock” and added: “We need to find the opportunity to have a greater dialogue with schools but getting our foot through the door isn’t easy.”

He said he wanted schools to learn best practice from achievements at St George’s, but the meeting also heard there were many factors which could impact school achievement.

These included the high number of pupils being expelled, transience which meant youngsters regularly changed school and parental factors such as parents being out of work or suffering mental health issues.

Mr Dow said education was now being instilled into Blackpool’s regeneration programme.

He said: “We have to ask, do we have a curriculum which meets what our town needs and what our pupils need? In a lot of cases of exclusion we look at alternative learning environments and sometimes these are more inspiring to some of our pupils.”

The meeting heard South Shore Academy has now been taken over by Cidari, which is the Blackburn Diocese multi-academy trust which already runs St George’s School.

South Shore was put into special measures after being rated inadequate following an Ofsted inspection in June 2023. A further Ofsted inspection in June 2024 found some improvements but said more work needs to be done.

Percentage of pupils passing at least four GCSEs including English and maths – Armfield 38 per cent; Aspire 38 per cent; Highfield 45 per cent; Montgomery 38 per cent; South Shore 20 per cent; St George’s 83 per cent; St Mary’s 51 per cent; Unity 24 per cent.

Percentage of pupils passing at least five GCSEs including English and maths – Armfield 22 per cent; Aspire 24 per cent; Highfield 30 per cent; Mongomery 21 per cent; South Shore nine per cent; St George’s 70 per cent; St Mary’s 28 per cent; Unity 12 per cent.