Results Day

A new national challenge set on tuesday states that schools need to achieve the benchmark of 30% of pupils achieving five good GCSEs including English and maths within three years. This means that 638 schools round the country are waiting anxiously today to see if their results have safely kept them above water, or if they will then be faced with the possibility of closure. The National Challenge will offer these struggling schools extra funding, expert advice, mentoring from experienced head teachers and assistance from neighbouring schools and external partners in the hope that the schools won’t need to face closure.

Certainly the National Union of Teachers, the BBC report indicates, has rejected the government’s threat of closing these 638 schools - and says that these schools are often performing well in the “toughest areas”.
The academy programme is now set to accelerate and 313 are planned to open within the next two years.

Read more on the BBC education feed here.