School performance 2011 - The truth!

School performance 2011 - The truth! Last week, the Department for Education published data on more than 3,300 secondary schools' GCSE and A-Level exam results. Now parents have more information than ever about how their child's school is performing, this is an increase of data of 400 per cent than in 2010. Performance tables for 2011 now include: level of performance of disadvantaged children. if pupils with high, middle and low achieving results continue to make progress. how many pupils entered into the core academic subjects that make up the EBacc. Sadly, the 2011 GCSE results reveal that hundreds of secondary schools are failing to help pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their full potential. Children on free school meals or in local authority care are approximately half as likely to achieve the national benchmark of five A* -C grade GCSEs including English and maths compared to their peers. Nationally, only one in 25 disadvantaged pupils managed to secure good grades in a combination of English, maths, languages, history or geography, and two sciences. This compares to the national average of nearly one in six. For the first time, the tables highlight how pupils have progressed since they left primary school. This year's statistics show that thousands of previously high achieving pupils are being failed by their secondary school: 8.600 pupils, 4.9 per cent, who were excelling at the end of primary school, then failed to gain five A* -C grade including English and maths. 45.6 per cent of pupils, some 120,000, who were at Level 4 at Key Stage 2 failed to make the expected amount of progress, to five A*-C grades including English and maths, at secondary school. There are now 107 secondary schools below the national minimum standard. A secondary school is below the floor standard if: fewer than 35 per cent of pupils achieve the basics standard of five A* to C grade GCSEs including English and maths. fewer pupils make good progress in English between KS2 and KS4 than the national average. fewer pupils make good progress in maths between KS2 and KS4 than the national average. Find out how your child's school performs here. If you feel that your child may need some extra help, consider finding a private tutor. We have hundreds of testimonials that prove that private tuition really does help improve grades.

Algebra Too!

Algebra Too! So, last night I was doing something I do not do much of these days, I was tutoring. The student is the son of a dear friend of mine who is struggling with Algebra 2. Now I know this young man is not alone in this position, as I would have to say at least half the people I’ve ever known struggled with Intermediate Algebra. In fact, I recall many years ago, sitting in a mathematics course that had me over a barrel. In other words I was not doing well. Barely passing would have been an accurate description. I’m not really a math guy myself, but I have proven that if you are committed, and I don’t mean committed to a nut house, but really determined and willing to work twice as hard as anyone else in the class and willing to reach out for plenty of help, you can pass almost anything, eventually. Yet I digress, I was sitting in a course called Differential Equations asking myself how I will ever pass this class, when the professor announced, if anyone was interested in a little extra credit, see him after class. Well you know where I was after class . I was given a stack of midterm exams from two intermediate algebra classes he teaches. This was a lot of exams too; I would guess seventy or more. So I spent the whole weekend grading these algebra tests. When I brought them back to the instructor I said; I think I messed up here. “Why”, he asked, “because, half of these students failed the exam”. He said, “That’s about right”. Wow! So this young man I’m tutoring is very smart, but typical in Algebra land, it seems. What I began to see was this kid was more likely bored than he was confused by X and Y Planes. Then I remembered when I started my own education at Santa Monica Community College. I had to start with high school arithmetic because I avoided all things mathematical back then. I seemed to have a lot trouble. But the word was out, that if you have trouble with math there is one teacher you need to take. I will not give his name out here, because he is probably still teaching there and if you attend that school you will hear very quickly about who he is. For now, we’ll call him … Mr. Brown. His classes are filled to the brim, always. He starts his class lecture by yelling out to the room that he loves math and do you know why, he shouts. And all the students that have had him before shout back; “Because Math is beautiful!” “That’s Right”, he would exclaim. Math is beautiful! He went on to explain math is beautiful because 2 + 2 ALWAYS equals 4! ALWAYS! It never equals anything else. Well you get the idea. Mr. Brown also believed that learning the material was much more important than getting a grade. So, he backed it up with action. Every student in his class had a choice of taking one of the exams over again, if they were not happy with their grade. This exam would not be the same exam as the one before but if the grade was better, it would replace it, just as long as you learn something. He was and probably still is a funny man that enjoys teaching, a lot. And his students felt that, including me. I have had good teachers and bad teachers and what got me through the bad teachers was getting a tutor to translate mathematics into a human language that a slug like me could understand. And it was not as boring or intimidating. In fact, “It was beautiful!” Hooray for the Mr. Browns out there! Algebra Too! So, last night I was doing something I do not do much of these days, I was tutoring. The student is the son of a dear friend of mine who is struggling with Algebra 2. Now I know this young man is not alone in this position, as I would have to say at least half the people I’ve ever known struggled with Intermediate Algebra. In fact, I recall many years ago, sitting in a mathematics course that had me over a barrel. In other words I was not doing well. Barely passing would have been an accurate description. I’m not really a math guy myself, but I have proven that if you are committed, and I don’t mean committed to a nut house, but really determined and willing to work twice as hard as anyone else in the class and willing to reach out for plenty of help, you can pass almost anything, eventually. Yet I digress, I was sitting in a course called Differential Equations asking myself how I will ever pass this class, when the professor announced, if anyone was interested in a little extra credit, see him after class. Well you know where I was after class . I was given a stack of midterm exams from two intermediate algebra classes he teaches. This was a lot of exams too; I would guess seventy or more. So I spent the whole weekend grading these algebra tests. When I brought them back to the instructor I said; I think I messed up here. “Why”, he asked, “because, half of these students failed the exam”. He said, “That’s about right”. Wow! So this young man I’m tutoring is very smart, but typical in Algebra land, it seems. What I began to see was this kid was more likely bored than he was confused by X and Y Planes. Then I remembered when I started my own education at Santa Monica Community College. I had to start with high school arithmetic because I avoided all things mathematical back then. I seemed to have a lot trouble. But the word was out, that if you have trouble with math there is one teacher you need to take. I will not give his name out here, because he is probably still teaching there and if you attend that school you will hear very quickly about who he is. For now, we’ll call him … Mr. Brown. His classes are filled to the brim, always. He starts his class lecture by yelling out to the room that he loves math and do you know why, he shouts. And all the students that have had him before shout back; “Because Math is beautiful!” “That’s Right”, he would exclaim. Math is beautiful! He went on to explain math is beautiful because 2 + 2 ALWAYS equals 4! ALWAYS! It never equals anything else. Well you get the idea. Mr. Brown also believed that learning the material was much more important than getting a grade. So, he backed it up with action. Every student in his class had a choice of taking one of the exams over again, if they were not happy with their grade. This exam would not be the same exam as the one before but if the grade was better, it would replace it, just as long as you learn something. He was and probably still is a funny man that enjoys teaching, a lot. And his students felt that, including me. I have had good teachers and bad teachers and what got me through the bad teachers was getting a tutor to translate mathematics into a human language that a slug like me could understand. And it was not as boring or intimidating. In fact, “It was beautiful!” Hooray for the Mr. Browns out there!