Secondary school tables: Up to 40 schools face closure unless they improve results

More than 10 per cent of secondary schools must improve if they are to meet minimum government targets for GCSE results by 2006, exam league tables show today.

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Up to 40 schools face closure unless they improve results

Headteachers attack 'unrealistic' exam targets

'Change of ethos' turns around second-worst school

A secondary modern packed with pupils no one else wants

Six years ago it had no sixth form, now it's one of the best for A-levels

Outbreak infects schools' positions

A-levels: Top 200 state comprehensives | All grammar schools | Top 50 independent schools | Top 20 LEAs | Bottom 20 LEAs

GCSEs: Top 200 state comprehensives | All grammar schools | Schools below 25% success - Part I (25% - 19%) | Schools below 25% success - Part II (below 19%) | Top 20 LEAs | Bottom 40 LEAs

Absence: Bottom 20 schools (authorised) | Bottom 20 schools (unauthorised) | Bottom 20 LEAs (authorised) | Bottom 20 LEAs (unauthorised)

External link

Tables on education department website

More than 10 per cent of secondary schools must improve if they are to meet minimum government targets for GCSE results by 2006, exam league tables show today.

Today's tables of GCSE and A-level results for every school in England are the first since the announcement of targets in the Government's education White Paper – due to be confirmed in legislation tomorrow.

Ministers have said that at least 25 per cent of pupils must get five top grade (A* to C) grade GCSE passes by 2006. The tables show 373 schools fell short of that figure this year, and nearly 200 fell short of a target of 20 per cent by 2004. In addition, 26 education authorities, a sixth, failed to meet a 2004 target of 38 per cent.

Up to 40 of the worst performers – those where fewer than 15 per cent of pupils got five top grades for two years running – face closure next year if they fail to improve.

But teachers' leaders said the targets were hampering efforts to improve standards. David Hart, National Association of Head Teachers' general secretary, criticised the "constant naming and shaming of schools in the most deprived areas of the country".

Ministers took heart from the rise in the overall pass rate in GCSE's and A-levels. And Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, said the new specialist schools had outperformed other state schools.