Primary school league tables show huge gains for academies

David Tow, headteacher at Broadfield East Junior School (Pic by Jon Rigby)

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Crawley schools which converted to academies have shown massive improvements in reading, writing and maths.

The final primary school league tables for 2015 showed the Key Stage 2 results for most academies in Crawley improving by as much as 17 per cent compared to 2014.

The tables, which were published on Thursday (December 10), showed four of the town’s five primary-level academies improved, with all of them exceeding or matching the national average.

Broadfield East Juniors made the biggest improvement, their results rising 17 per cent compared to 2014, from 69 per cent to 86 per cent. They were closely followed by The Oaks, in Tilgate, which shot up from 64 per cent to 80 per cent.

Hilltop Primary, in Southgate, and Seymour Primary, in Broadfield, both showed 11 per cent increases, rising from a 71 per cent pass rate to 82 per cent.

The only academy which earned lower results was Bewbush Academy, which dropped from 63 per cent to 51 per cent.

In 2013, only 35 per cent of children at Broadfield East Juniors, were meeting the average requirements in the three Rs.

Headteacher David Tow put the incredible turnaround down to the school’s decision to join the TKAT (The Kemnal Academies Trust) family.

He said: “Since we changed the leadership of the school in January 2014, we have had a relentless focus on raising standards.”

While the academies could be rightly proud of their achievements, the school with the best Key Stage 2 results in town was Milton Mount Primary, in Pound Hill. A 15 per cent improvement on 2014 saw 90 per cent of youngsters at the community school earn the expected level 4 or above.

Headteacher Anne Holmes said a number of initiatives had been introduced to help children brush up on their skills. They included a breakfast group, which runs three times a week, and a football, pizza and maths club, which ran during the Easter holiday.