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Headteacher Jo Shuter praised staff for results |
‘Failing’ school tops class
Council accused of privatising education in spite of improvements
THE headteacher at Pimlico and Quintin Kynaston has praised her teachers after Westminster’s last two community schools recorded their best ever GCSE results.
Jo Shuter said the results were significant as they were in crucial core subjects – English, maths and science.
She said: “The GCSE results are the best ever – by miles. It is five or six per cent above the national average.
“It is particularly amazing for a school like QK with 80 per cent of pupils from ethnic groups and 70 per cent with English as an additional language. It’s an incredible result.”
She added: “The teachers work really hard – I cannot praise them enough.
“We really have embraced the government’s Every Child Matters agenda.”
But for campaigners fighting to keep Pimlico comprehensive, the results exposed holes in another government agenda – city academies.
Schools chiefs in July used a controversial Ofsted report that put the school in special measures in January to rubber-stamp their academy plan.
But with Pimlico hitting the national average for the first time since it opened 40 years ago, parents, teachers and pupils are asking why it has repeatedly been branded as ‘failing’ (see letters, page 6).
Westminster NUT secretary Padraic Finn said: “Pimlico’s results – the best ever for A-level and possibly for GCSE – come from a school that is in special measures and supposedly failing.
“The staff have done exceptionally well in what have been incredibly difficult circumstances. The results expose Westminster council’s agenda, which is to dismantle comprehensive education and hand over its community schools to private schools.”
It is believed the council will this week announce a sponsor from a shortlist of private schools to take control of Pimlico.
Cllr Nick Yarker, Westminster deputy member for schools, said he was “delighted” with the results, particularly at St Marylebone School for Girls and Grey Coat Hospital Comprehensive. |
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