Yarmouth school unjustly labelled - head

A SOUTHTOWN school has been unfairly tarnished after the publication of its national test results, according to its head.Edward Worlledge Junior was near the bottom of the table of Norfolk schools in results published earlier this month.

A SOUTHTOWN school has been unfairly tarnished after the publication of its national test results, according to its head.

Edward Worlledge Junior was near the bottom of the table of Norfolk schools in results published earlier this month.

But head Dawn Kightley believes this does not fairly reflect the achievements of the school, which received a good Ofsted rating last year.

Half the pupils at the school are registered with special needs, just over a third have free school meals and many do not have English as their first language.

Ms Kightley said: “The school has been unjustly labelled, and for the staff and children here who work so hard to be judged on one set of results is soul destroying.

“Our starting points are much lower than the national average, and, although they make good progress, many move on before taking the test.

“Others who took it this year had not been with us a very long time, so the results do not fully reflect the education provided here.

“This is a deprived area that is changing on an almost weekly basis, with a lot of migrants moving in from Portugal and Lithuania. We have not become a bad school on the basis of one set of results, and parents are very complimentary about the work we are doing.”

Year six pupils scored 51pc in English and 38pc in maths, which was below the government target, and 78pc for science.