3:20pm Sunday 21st March 2010
NEARLY half of all children in Bolton are failing to fulfil their academic potential.
Schoolchildren in the borough are less likely to achieve the grades they are said to be capable of.
And education chiefs have admitted that “significant work” needs to be done to improve the progress children make in school.
Figures released by the government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families showed how many children make the expected progress between key stage two — ages seven to 11 — and key stage four — ages 14 to 16.
For example, high-attaining children at primary school should achieve the top A* to B grades in GCSE. If they do not then they are said not have made their “expected progress”.
In Bolton 56.6 per cent of children progressed in English as they should have, compared with the region’s average of 63.8 per cent and 65.5 per cent nationally.
Children did even worse in maths where only 51.8 made the expected progress.
The North West average is 55.5 per cent and in England it stood at 58.7 per cent.
Girls outperformed boys by 12 percentage points in English but the gap closed when it came to maths. But both sexes still did worse than their counterparts elsewhere in the country.
A council spokesman said: “We recognise that the figures released by the Government show that significant work needs to be done to improve pupil progress.
“Having said that, it is important to be aware that, while these figures are below national averages, our attainment levels, particularly at GCSE, have risen each year for the last five years to the extent that the percentage of young people achieving five or more A*-C grades is above the national average.”
He added: “There are also positives to be found in the pupil progress statistics — especially for Bolton’s boys performance in English, which has improved for the last four years. This is particularly positive as it has been a major area of focus for both us and the Government.
“Our schools are working hard to improve the way that they track the progress of their pupils, and we are doing everything we can to support them. This includes providing data from an external company which ensures that schools can estimate their pupils’ progress as accurately as possible.”
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