Myth of Bristol schools’ improving results

Christine Townsend is a former teacher, co-founder of Integrate Bristol and a school governor for safeguarding. She is running for mayor as an independent candidate.

George Ferguson, council officers and Sir David Carter, national schools commissioner, would all like us all to believe that Bristol schools are good and getting better.

The current mayor recently told an audience at the City Academy that Bristol schools were “over performing”. Sir David Carter said on Points West: “The fact that 10 years ago Bristol was propping up the league tables and is now 21st I think is a remarkable success story.”

The reality is somewhat different, and their deliberate spin seeks to hide the true reality of what has and is happening.

Bristol schools are not 21st in the local authority school tables, they are not “over performing” compared to their peers – the reality is that the 54 per cent A*-C grades is less than the national local authority average. Bristol is actually 141st in the league tables.

In addition, the 54 per cent A*-C grades represent an overall decrease from the previous year – 2015 results saw 11 of the 20 secondary schools having lower results that 2014.

There are some “over performing” schools in Bristol, however these schools all have low numbers of children entitled to free school meal, a low number of children for whom English is a second language and a low number of children who have special educational needs.

These schools have remained unchallenged as they structure their admissions procedures in such a way as the resulting social selection maintains existing privilege. 

Our city has an average free school meal statistic of 25 per cent reflecting the of our children growing up in poverty.

Last year, Bristol Cathedral Choir School scored a GCSE A*-C statistic of 88 per cent. A quick look at the School Performance Table data tells us that Bristol Cathedral Choir School has less than seven per cent of its intake entitled to free school meals.

Likewise, St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School achieved 73 per cent A*-C GCSE grades last year, admitting students from across the Diocese of Bristol. It has a free school meal statistic of 7 per cent.

Colstons’ Girls School achieved 83 per cent A*- C grades and like Cathedral Choir allocate a proportion of their places to children from across the city. Colstons’ has less than 13 per cent of its intake entitled to free school meals.

Admitting students from beyond the Bristol boundaries results in all three of these schools turning away hundreds of Bristol children each year while allocating places to those who live in rural villages within commuting distance of our city and in a position to afford the transport costs. 

Family affluence or otherwise remains the single largest indicator of school achievement, both as students move up into secondary school and when they sit their GCSE exams at the end of Year 11.

This is something Carter and education officers are fully aware of and something (we would hope) that is also fully understood by the current elected mayor.

Ferguson and Carter could have used their recent platforms to call on schools that admit mainly affluent students to take their share of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and provide places for local children who wish to attend these schools. Neither men chose to do this.

The current near universally accepted status quo that sees top performing Bristol schools exercising backdoor social selection enabling the headlining media spin to throw a cloak of deception over the school success for so many of our young people is totally unacceptable.

How can it be acceptable that the closest geographically located school to Cathedral Choir, St Mary Redcliffe and Colstons’ Girls, is City Academy, which has a free school meal statistic of 66 per cent?

I believe this two tier education system needs to be fundamentally re-structured so that those children growing up in poverty are able to access schools that achieve high GCSE results on an equal par with that of their affluent peers.

I also believe that local children should not be refused places in favour of those who are in a position to transport their children long distances in order to attend Bristol’s high achieving schools. 

The recent primary place crisis is about to hit the secondary sector and this will be an overriding issue for the next elected mayor in terms of education policy.

Some of the places needed in the secondary sector already exist – all that needs to happen is for Bristol schools to allocate the places to children that live in Bristol.

Expansion and new schools will be needed but with such seismic attention being placed once again on the secondary sector, the social selection that currently blights the life-chances of thousands of our young people also needs to be a focus.

If Bristol is ever going to tackle the huge levels of inequality our city has always experienced, the next mayor needs to commit to challenging the privilege maintenance that is inherent within state education in this city. A child entitled to free school meals should have as much opportunity to attend high achieving schools as their peers.

Creating a secondary school estate that sees our poorest children accessing high-achieving schools is perfectly possible. All schools, regardless of type, can now prioritise children entitled to free school meals and this is what these schools need to do – after all, Ofsted tell us they are “Outstanding” and “Good” schools.

What possible reasons might the schools or those standing to be the next mayor have for rejecting such an obviously needed education policy?

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