Cycling theory is secret of school’s success
A HEADTEACHER has revealed how cycling geared his pupils up to achieve record-breaking exam results.
Manny Botwe, headteacher at Tytherington School, says staff applied a theory used by British cycling coach and former performance director of British Cycling Sir Dave Brailsford for pupils to excel in their GCSEs and A-levels.
The ‘marginal gains’ theory reasons that if a team breaks down everything it can think of that goes into being successful on the track, and then improves each element by 1 per cent, it will achieve a significant increase in performance.
Mr Botwe said: “At the start of the year we set ourselves the target of what it would take to record the best results in the north west.
“We then broke things down into small achievable marginal gains which would amount to huge improvements.
“There are no secrets to our success. It is down to hard work, first class pastoral care and sheer enthusiasm for learning.”
Staff, he says, looked at all the possible ways they could support students ahead of their exams, ranging from abolishing study leave in May to giving students the extra support they needed during exams.
Providing free, nutritious breakfasts during the exam period and yoga sessions for staff and students to help them unwind were other methods used.
Mr Botwe added that it had been a ‘stellar’ academic year for the school, with it recording the top GCSE and A-Level results in and around Macclesfield, and said it was thanks to inspiration from Britain’s cycling success.
He said: “Astonishingly, 80pc of our year 11 students achieved five GCSEs at A*-C grades including English and maths, which was an improvement of 16pc on last year’s figure.
“Eighty-nine per cent of students achieved A*-C grades in English and 87pc in maths and both pupils’ A-level results and GCSE results look set to place them in the top 10pc of all schools in England.”
He added: “Every student is known as an individual here at Tytherington school and this helps us to be able to achieve exceptional results.”