West End letters: Georgina Schueller | Micon Metcalfe | Pimlico Academy | GCSE | Companies House

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 11 September 2009

Making the grade

GEORGINA Schueller questions the tactics and funding which enabled Pimlico Academy to achieve its much-improved GCSE results this summer (Letters, September 4).
There is no secret that academies are funded differently from maintained schools.
They are also subject to different financial reporting procedures and are required to publish accounts at Companies House, if she is interested in examining academy operating costs.
However, this debate is a political one and I am not sure we should criticise Pimlico, which is fortunate enough to benefit from the freedoms associated with academy status, for directing its resources to improve the outcomes of its students.
All schools are required to meet government-directed performance targets, published in ever more complicated league tables, which brand schools the best and worst in the country and threaten closure to those which fall below the expected standards.
We should not criticise schools for seeking ways to motivate and encourage students or for seeking accredited courses which improve functional literacy and numeracy skills, while boosting overall league table positions.
This may well be “manipulating” children to perform but I would question whether this is indeed failing to educate them.
More young people from Pimlico than ever before are now equipped to progress to the next level of their education. Five GCSE passes at
A*-C opens the pathways to Level 3 courses, 4 or even 4.5 GCSE passes at A*-C does not. Success at Level 3 opens the pathways to degree-level courses and the consequent choices and benefits. Is this not what education is about?
Micon Metcalfe
Pimlico Parent
Uffington Road, SE27

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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