Third year of triumph for school

An East End comprehensive is today celebrating taking the title of England's most improved secondary school for the third year running.

Sir John Cass Foundation and Redcoat Church of England School, in Tower Hamlets, increased the proportion of pupils getting at least five Cs at GCSE from 36 per cent to 87 per cent between 2001 and 2004.

Headteacher Haydn Evans is unapologetic about using vocational qualifications to improve results. And he rejected calls to force schools to include English and maths in the five A* to C grades yardstick.

Such a move would penalise schools such as his, where seven out of 10 pupils speak a different language at home, he said.

Mr Evans added: "You are going to favour those schools that have linguistic competence - then you are probably talking about the more middle-class and rural schools. We prioritise English and maths but we also want to give credit where it's due."

His comments were borne out by the fact that eight out of the 10 schools that came bottom in the 2003 London league tables improved their GCSE results this year.

Last week, the Evening Standard named the capital's 10 worst schools based on the 2003 rankings. Today, the tables for 2004 showed that only The Hayes Manor, in Hillingdon, slipped further back this year. Its proportion of pupils who attained five GCSEs at C and above dropped one point to 13 per cent.

Last year's worst London comprehensive, Malory School in Lewisham, saw its score rise from 11 per cent getting five A* to C grades or more to 15 per cent.

Battersea Technology College in Wandsworth went from 14 per cent to 23 per cent, St George RC School in Westminster from 15 to 28 per cent, Lilian Baylis in Lambeth from 16 to 24 per cent, St Joseph's Academy in Lewisham from 17 to 25 per cent and John Penrose in Hillingdon from 13 to 22 per cent.

But the most spectacular rise was achieved by Blackheath Bluecoat Church of England School in Greenwich, which doubled its proportion of pupils getting five good GCSEs to 26 per cent.

Anther member of last year's bottom 10, Evelyns Community School in Hillingdon, is being turned into a city academy and did not report its GCSE results.