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Academic Quality & Results

There are no shortcuts to success. Our pupils typically achieve better than expected results because we have a culture of high aspirations and hard work.

Academic Quality & Results

There are no shortcuts to success. Our pupils typically achieve better than expected results because we have a culture of high aspirations and hard work.

Pupils from Hydesville Tower School in Walsall are celebrating excellent GCSE results today (Thursday 25th August 2022), with half of all grades at a grade 7 to 9 (the equivalent of A/A*/A**).

90% of pupils scored Grade 8 or 9 in Religious Studies, and there were high levels of success in Chemistry, French, Maths, and Physics, where the significant majority of pupils secured grade 7 or above. As well as the outstanding quality of scores, the value added measures representing the improvements made since joining the school show that every pupil has gained significantly by being at Hydesville.

Success this year has been even more poignant for pupils due to the significant time of disruption to their studies due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  As the first group for three years to sit examinations, they went into the summer knowing that grade boundaries would be more stringent than 2020 and 2021.

Read more about our 2022 GCSE results here.

 

 

 

 


Our 2022 GCSE Highlights

91%

Grades awarded at 7+ in Maths (the previous A grade equivalent)

(vs. 21% National Average)

 

96%

Pupils achieving G4+ (inc Eng & Maths)

 

 

50%

Grades awarded at G7+

(vs. 27% National Average)

 

93%

Grades awarded at G5+

(vs. 60% National Average)

Exam results are one important measure of a school’s performance and we are proud to report consistently top notch grades.

Hydesville Tower Senior School is consistently ranked as the third highest achieving Secondary School in the borough in the GCSE league tables published by the Department for Education.  The league tables show that the school’s Attainment 8 score – which gauges achievement across eight qualifications including English and Mathematics –  far exceeds the national average.

Although extremely proud of our position in the GCSE performance tables, there is another measure which is of greater importance to us; the amount of progress each child makes.  ‘Value added’ is a measure of the progress pupils make between different stages of their education; if pupils perform beyond expectations this is reflected in a high ‘value added’ score. The Senior School is within the top three per cent nationally when it comes to adding value to a child’s level of attainment.

 

We are proud to be a Centre for Excellence in 11+ Preparation.

From all the Year 6 pupils in our Prep School sitting the 11+ exam in September 2021, 70% secured offers of a place at grammar school.

Their success is due to a combination of natural ability and the teaching and experiences they have received from our Nursery onwards.

The specific 11+ preparatory work our experienced teachers deliver from Year 2 gives our pupils a clear advantage.  We are proud of our academic achievements and high quality teaching.

Preparation for 11+ has always been a tradition at Hydesville and a significant number of pupils continue to secure places at our local grammar schools.  We understand that such places are not suitable for all pupils and our regular tracking and monitoring enables us to support all pupils to the journey to success.

 

GL assessments are undertaken every year across the country, with benchmarks of above 112 as representing high achievement.  Therefore, success obtained is a measure of the outstanding teaching occurring within the school.

Our GL assessment enables us to check the accuracy of attainment within a national context.

For the academic year 2021/22 we are delighted to announce another successful year where almost all year groups averaged 112+ in GL assessments (English and Maths combined), with the average scores as follows:

 

Year Group English & Maths combined score
Year 1 112.8
Year 2 114.9
Year 3 111.9
Year 4 118.9
Year 5 111.2
Year 6 116.9

 

Our test results in the EYFS profile are well above national levels.  By the end of the academic year 2021/22, 84% of our children reached a ‘good’ level of development at the end of our EYFS. This compares to 59% of children in Walsall and 65% of children nationally reaching a ‘good’ level of development.

This means children have reached all the expected levels in communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, physical development, mathematics and literacy.  It is evident that our Early Years provision is giving the best start to school: the “Hydesville Headstart”.

Pupils continue to achieve highly and exceed national expectations at the end of Key Stage 2.  The end-of-year results for 2021/22 are as follows:

 

Expected Standard National Scores % of HTS pupils at Greater Depth
Reading 86% 74% 64%
Spelling, punctuation and grammar 93% 72% 71%
Mathematics 93% 71% 71%

 

 

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