TOP of the class!

Colchester Royal Grammar School has topped the national education league tables in results released today.

The school was the best in the country for A-level results although it lost out to its counterpart Colchester High School for Girls in the GCSEs.

Figures published by the Government today showed Colchester Royal Grammar School came 12th in the national rankings for GCSEs with the girls’ grammar just winning the battle of the sexes, taking tenth place.

Both had 100 per cent of pupils achieving five or more A* to C including English and maths.

However, in the A level table, it was Colchester Royal Grammar School, which takes girls in the sixth form, which took the honours, topping the national table with Colchester County High School for Girls coming 25th nationally.

Ken Jenkinson, head of Colchester Royal Grammar School, said: “We are delighted with the official figures for 2014 which reflect the school’s commitment to academic achievement and continuous improvement.

“The students and staff work extremely hard and it is a credit to them that the results they achieve stand up so well in national comparisons.”

Colchester County High School for Girls scored 1,041 for value added measures – points awarded when pupils achieve higher than predicted grades.

Headteacher Gillian Marshall said: “We are absolutely delighted.

The big thing for us is the value added figure because a student who comes here and starts in Year 7 is almost guaranteed to come out with outstanding results.

“It is difficult for grammar schools to add a huge amount of value added, as they have students coming in with high attainment and come out with high attainment.”

Colchester Royal Grammar School earned a value added measure score of 1,042.

At the lower end of the table in the town was Alderman Blaxill School which saw just a fifth of its pupils achieve five A-C GCSEs, including maths and English.

However, it had a tiny cohort as the school shut last summer due to falling numbers.

A number of other schools saw a more dramatic drop in their GCSE results.

Results at St Benedict’s Catholic College, and Honywood Community Science School in Coggeshall, plummeted by 15 per cent, compared to 2013.

The Stanway School’s results also showed an initial drop of 15 per cent, but this has been revised to 13 per cent.

Jonathan Bland, co-headteacher, said the figure had gone remarked.

He said: “Maths, English and science were all still above the national average and that original figure of 58 per cent does not reflect re-marks that have come since that time.

“That shows the volatility of the results we experienced at the time.”

St Helena School, in Colchester, also sawabig drop, with 42 per cent of pupils achieving five or more good GCSEs, including maths and English, compared to 56 per cent in 2013.

And Colchester Academy saw just 37 per cent of pupils achieve five A-C GCSEs including maths and English, compared to 49 per cent in 2013.

Principal Barry Hersom said: “We had three years of great results and last year was a huge disappointment.

“The simple fact was there were dramatic changes in the exams system and lots of people got caught out. We got caught out, but that’s no excuse.

“It is our job to cope with whatever pressures are thrown at us.

“Hopefully, we have adjusted to the changes to make sure our current Year 11 get an excellent set of results.”