Progress paves the way for other schools

Executive headteacher of Avonbourne Trust, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, is speaking at conferences across the country to share her experience of the new Progress 8 grading for schools. Avonbourne Trust was part of a national pilot scheme trialling Progress 8 before it goes nation-wide this year.

Executive headteacher of Avonbourne Trust, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, is speaking at conferences across the country to share her experience of the new Progress 8 grading for schools. Avonbourne Trust was part of a national pilot scheme trialling Progress 8 before it goes nation-wide this year.

A Bournemouth Academy Trust is leading the way when it comes to demonstrating how students can make great progress.

Avonbourne Trust – home of Harewood and Avonbourne colleges, Avonwood Primary and Avonbourne Sixth Form – has been helping the government to pilot a new way of recording the progress students make from years 7 to 11.

Called Progress 8, in this new way of grading, students will not only receive their GCSE results but schools will be given a mark to measure how students have made progress during their time at secondary school.

Avonbourne College achieved excellent Progress 8 marks last year – the second best in the borough and beating the grammar schools. This shows that its students are achieving a far higher standard than what was expected of them at age 11.

Now executive headteacher of Avonbourne Trust, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure, has been invited to speak at conferences across the country to share her experience of Progress 8 with other heads as they prepare for the scheme to be rolled out to everyone this year.

She said: “Progress 8 tells the bigger picture of a child’s journey through secondary school – a journey that is simply not captured by GCSE grades alone.

“If a student achieves great improvement from where they were when they started school that shows a future employer their diligence, hard work and perseverance. These are great qualities for any employer to find in someone.

“We very much encourage our students to strive to be their best and to work hard and this was borne out with our first set of Progress 8 marks last year.”

Debbie has already attended two conferences in London, most recently the ‘Implementing Reformed Secondary School Curricula’ held at the offices of Inside Westminster.

And she is due to speak at further conferences in Barnet and Solihull later in the year.

“It was an honour to be invited by my peers to speak at these conferences and share with them our experiences of Progress 8,” she said.

“This has been a very positive experience for us and I hope other schools will see for themselves when their results are announced in August.

“More importantly, I hope it gives encouragement to all those students who have worked their hardest and are now being recognised for their efforts, thanks to Progress 8.”

In the trial year of Progress 8, both Avonbourne and Harewood colleges achieved a positive score – that means most of its students have improved from their expected levels.

Both colleges are rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted and are expected to be at full capacity next year.

 

 

 

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