School celebrates after being named best in city
Staff at a Wearside secondary school are celebrating after performance tables deemed it the best in Sunderland.
Thornhill School was named top in the city for the new Progress 8 tables.
The Thornholme Road school was given a score of 0.26, which is above the national average.
The Sunderland average was given as -0.31, classed as below average, while the rating for England’s state-funded schools has been given as -0.03.
Progress 8 is a type of value-added measure, which means that pupils’ results are compared to the actual achievements of other pupils with similar prior attainment.
The new measures are designed to encourage schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum with a focus on an academic core at key stage 4, and reward schools for the teaching of all their pupils, measuring performance across eight qualifications.
Every increase in every grade a pupil achieves will attract additional points in the performance tables.
English and maths point scores are double weighted to signify their importance.
Thornhill student Rhian Kilty was the star performer at the school when the results were opened in August last year, achieving a phenomenal 10 A* grades as well as two grade 9s in English and maths.
Thornhill headteacher Ian Redford told the Echo: “School performance tables released today confirm that Thornhill remains the highest performing secondary school in Sunderland and places Thornhill in the top 20% of schools in England for academic progress.
“Despite the more difficult examinations, 100% of pupils gained GCSE qualifications with an outstanding 88% of pupils gaining an A/A* grade.
“Among these pleasing outcomes are many exceptional performances, however, an outstanding set of results were gained by Rhian Kilty, who achieved 10 A* grades plus two grade 9s (the new top grade) in English and maths.
“All the hard work of our pupils, supported by their teachers, teaching assistants and parents, has paid off.
“They will now be able to choose which career path they wish to follow into the future.
“Congratulations to all our 2017 leavers for achieving record- breaking exam results again.”