The publication of the school league tables today will cause the Government some embarrassment, mainly because Academies have performed more poorly than expected. The number of Academies in the Government’s National Challenge programme – schools in which fewer than 30 per cent of pupils get five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C including maths and English – has increased by a third, from 32 last year to 41 now. Academies make up just 6 per cent of secondary schools in England, but now account for 17 per cent of those in the National Challenge programme. In one of these schools – the New Line Learning Academy in Maidstone – 27 per cent of pupils are “persistently absent”. (To read more, click here.)
