On Thursday 21st October the Department for Education published provisional performance of all schools. These results are primarily for parents to understand the academic performance of a school, in particular when making decisions around choice of school. Quite rightly, this year, it is important we consider the impact of C19 on all schools when studying these results. That said, the highest performing secondary schools in the North East in 2022 are very similar to those pre-pandemic.
At GCSE, we are delighted to share that St Leonard’s Catholic School achieved an academic progress score of +0.47 which is the 4th highest in the North-East region of 171 secondary schools. Our progress score effectively means that all our students achieved around half a grade higher in every subject compared to the national average.
Pre-Covid we were ranked around 15th out of 20 Diocesan schools and 34 Durham secondary schools. In 2022 we are now ranked 2nd in both the Diocese and across all schools in Durham. This huge achievement is contrary to national and regional trends and is particularly impressive due to the uneven impact of the pandemic which has disproportionately impacted the North East.
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A huge congratulations must go to our students, staff and families for your ongoing support. This achievement is the culmination of years of hard work, lived out each and every day in many ways.
As a school we were delighted with the examination results from the summer. Our pupils and staff have worked tirelessly to overcome the challenges we have faced due to the difficulties of the last two years. Given the national context we are overjoyed that in every subject at GCSE our pupils have achieved significantly higher than in 2019 prior to the pandemic.
Overall, each of our pupils has achieved on average at least half a grade higher across all their subjects than in 2019. This progress is calculated from each pupil’s individual starting point and therefore is not altered by grade inflation due to the pandemic.
This progress score – of half a grade higher across all subjects – is exceptionally high and would place us amongst the highest performing schools in the North-east.
This huge achievement is contrary to national and regional trends. In London, 32.6% were marked at grades 7 or above, compared to just 22.4% in the North East and this gap is widening compared with 2020 and 2019. However, at St Leonard’s 37.7% of our grades were marked as 7 or above.
In a year of exceptional improvement across the whole school, the group of pupils who made the most progress, compared to the last set of results from 2019, were the pupils with a Special Need or Disability. As a group they improved on average by nearly 1.5 grades – in every subject – and, SEND progress is a full grade above the national average. An incredible well done to all our SEND pupils!
Please see our attainment figures for each department below.
Similarly, at A level, we are overjoyed at the wonderful successes of our pupils who leave St Leonard’s now to go on to exciting future ventures. Our 21-22 Year 13 leavers have shown real resilience having completed their GCSE programme of study predominantly during the pandemic and then going on to be the first-year group to sit their A Level examinations after 2 years of cancellations. We are extremely proud of their academic success at A Level and everything else they have achieved during their time at St Leonard’s.
Please see our attainment figures for each department below.
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