School learns the language of success

An inner city school that was once ranked as one of the worst comprehensives in the country was celebrating yesterday after being named the most improved secondary school in England. The achievement of Sir John Cass Foundation and Redcoat School in Stepney, east London is the more remarkable given its location among the council estates and tenement blocks of Tower Hamlets.

More than three quarters of the school's students are eligible for free school meals while more than half use English as a second language. In 1992 only 3.3 per cent of the 150 pupils sitting GCSEs managed to get five good passes and the school struggled to fill its places. Now the specialist language college is over-subscribed. Although a large proportion of students are drawn from the local predominantly Bangladeshi community, youngsters come from across London to attend Sir John Cass.

Last summer 69 per cent of GCSE candidates achieved five good passes, compared with a national average of 51.5 per cent, according to figures from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). This is in stark contrast to the school's standards in 1999 when 22 per cent of pupils left with this number of qualifications. However, the school believes that last summer will be even better once the figures have been double-checked by the DfES.

This astonishing rise of 47 percentage points saw the school singled out for special praise after coming top in the government's rankings of sustained improvement in GCSE exams. Haydn Evans, the head of the 1,050-pupil school since September 1995, believes that the school's status as a specialist language college has contributed to its success. "The school has always had a high proportion of students for whom English is a second language," he says. "That was an in-built – if hidden – strength. It was obvious that we should use that and it has had a major impact on our results."

The school now offers nine foreign languages – French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, Turkish and Mandarin Chinese.The school has also clamped down on bad behaviour and invested significant time and resources in encouraging students to become "independent learners".

A Chatham secondary modern school is praised for achieving the second largest rise in results over the last four years. Walderslade Girls' School, in Medway, recorded an improvement of more than 600 per cent with its GCSE results steadily rising from six per cent in 1999 to 43 per cent last summer. Pamela Conibeer, the head, says that last year's excellent results were the culmination of many years' hard work by all pupils and staff. "There is no easy fix to school improvement," she says. "It is a case of gradually refining our processes. It is a question of hard work and assiduous effort and attention to detail."

Being a secondary modern school in a local authority that still uses the 11-plus only made the task harder, she says. "We have become more popular because of our improving reputation."

Another school once consigned to the bottom of the tables is also celebrating after being named as one of the most improved secondary schools in the country. Thomas Hepburn Community Comprehensive in Gateshead, South Tyneside, achieved a 350 per cent rise in the proportion of students leaving school with five good GCSE passes. Figures today show that last year 35 per cent achieved at least five A* to C grades at GCSE – up from just eight per cent in 1999. In fact, the improvement was even greater – the figures were later upgraded to 36 per cent after the school asked for some exam papers to be remarked. Although this is below the national average which reached 51.5 per cent last summer, it is a remarkable achievement for a school in one of the most deprived parts of Gateshead.

Malcolm Dawson, who became headteacher in January 1999, says the school's reversal of fortunes has been a team effort. "This is not a story about a new head turning everything around," he says. "What we have done is build on what was here." The school, a large comprehensive in a deprived area of South Tyneside, attributes some of the rise to its enthusiastic adoption of new vocational qualifications as well as its membership of the Government's Excellence in Cities programme, which provides extra funds for inner-city schools.

The school has encouraged many students to take GCSE exams early to stretch bright youngsters and give them more confidence. "There are some very bright students here." Mr Dawson says.

"We want to say to them that they are clever youngsters and that they have a bright future ahead of them. Allowing them to get a GCSE at 14 sends an important message to them and their families about what they can achieve. Previously there was no tradition of fast-tracking pupils."