Holding head high as staff and children enjoy results of hard work

RETIRING head Kate MacRae could be forgiven for patting herself on the back at the end of term after a job well done.

Griffe Field Primary School, in Heatherton, came joint top in this year's primary achievement tables, along with Homefields Primary School, in Chellaston.

At both, last year's 11-year-olds managed to chalk up 290 percentage points.

This was achieved by adding together the percentage of pupils who gained level four or above in English, maths and science.

At Griffe Field Primary school all 63 pupils gained a level four or above in science; 97% achieved this standard in English, 94% in maths. Figures are rounded up or down to the nearest percentage point.

The past four years have seen a steady improvement in the percentage points, from 273 in 2006, 276 in 2007 and 284 in 2008.

The school has been running 10 years, with Miss MacRae at the helm throughout.

She said: "I am very proud of what has been achieved at the school, both this year and in previous years. A tremendous amount of work has been put into making the improvements, by both staff and pupils.

"Our staff work to make sure they know every child well, and what is needed to help them to make good progress.

"We are getting better at using the data we collect about pupils and putting it to good use."

Mrs MacRae said the time was right for her to retire.

She said: "I have a very strong leadership team.

"And the school is very stable at the moment, in terms of staff and results."

The school also scored highly in the achievement tables for its "value-added" measure.

This is calculated using a complicated formula to work out how much is being put into a child's education from when they start school aged five until they leave at 11.

A figure above 100 in the table shows that a school is making particularly good strides in adding to a child's education.

Griffe Field Primary's value added figure is 102, putting it among the top-performing schools in the country.

Homefields Primary School, in Parkway, has a good value-added figure of 101.6, to go with its percentage points score of 290.

Deputy head Joanne Chapman said: "I am delighted that all the hard work has paid off and is reflected in this year's results. Our value-added figure is strong.

"We make sure we track our pupils' progress very carefully through the school.

"We also make sure that we support vulnerable individuals to ensure they don't get left behind."

Unsurprisingly, the two schools were also top in the Government's measure of success in maths and English.

At Homefields Primary, 94% of pupils gained a level four or above in both English and maths.

At Griffe Field Primary, the figure was 90%.

It was also 90% at St Werburgh's C of E Primary, in Spondon and Walter Evans C of E Primary in Darley Abbey.

Other schools in the city showed some good solid progress with Beaufort Community Primary School achieving 224 percentage points.

This figure has climbed from 194 in 2006, 213 in 2007 and 214 in 2008.

Another school making good progress is Becket Primary School in Monk Street, whose results have gone from 155 in 2006 to 254 this year.

Although Sinfin Primary was low in the table, after achieving a total of 153 percentage points, it was well up on the 107 it gained last year.

Borrow Wood Junior School will be merging with adjacent Borrow Wood Infant School, in Spondon, next September.

Plans for the change have not detracted from the tests in which pupils gained 285 percentage points, up from 281 four years ago.

Head teacher Helen Hough said: "We were particularly pleased with our maths and science results.

"But we feel that more communication is needed by exam boards when it comes to assessing English.

"Work on merging the two schools is going well and these results are the icing on the cake."