Rochdale only borough in Greater Manchester to hit new secondary school standards

Councillor Donna Martin, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services

Rochdale is the only borough in Greater Manchester to hit the new national standards for secondary education.

Councillor Donna Martin, cabinet member for children’s services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “This result is something that everyone can be extremely proud of, and a testament to the brilliant working relationship between our school staff, leadership, parents and pupils. They deserve so much praise for their tireless work towards hitting the new national secondary standards.

“We have made improving education a major priority for the borough and I want to pay tribute to the incredibly strong support that the council puts in place for schools that need help.”

The Department for Education says the new standards take in greater account of a pupil’s progress and their basic ability. The ‘Progress 8’ score looks at pupils’ performance throughout secondary education, whereas the ‘Attainment 8’ measures their achievements across eight GCSE qualifications.

These standards have replaced the measure of ranking secondary schools by proportion of pupils gaining A*-C grades in five GCSE subjects, including English and maths.

According to figures reported by the BBC on 19 January, no schools in Rochdale are under-performing with all 12 secondary schools hitting the national standards target. However, nearby Oldham was deemed the worst with five of the borough’s 13 schools under-performing (38.5%).

One of 18 secondary schools in Wigan was under-performing (5.6%) and one of 13 in Bury (7.7%). Two schools in both Trafford and Bolton put their under-performance at 11.1% and 11.8% respectively.

Three of 25 schools in Manchester were under-performing (12%) and two of 15 in Tameside (13.3%). Two schools in Salford and Stockport put their levels at 14.3% and 15.4%, respectively.

A total of 282 secondary schools across England are deemed to be failing by the Government.