The following results were taken from www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables (www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables/) for this years SATs tests for 11 yr olds showing % reaching minimum required level.

English Maths Science
Nat Ave 75% 73% 87%

Sheffield 69.3 67.1 82.5
Derbyshire 77.4 74.7 88
Rotherham 69.4 68.2 84.3
Barnsley 64.8 65.2 81.2
Doncaster 72.2 70.5 86.1

Sheffield falls well below national average on all subjects and when compared to neighbouring authorities comes only above Barnsley.

What is Sheffield doing wrong? Are our children less bright than elsewhere (I don't think so)? Are we recruiting poorer teachers (a possibilty)? Are the governing bodies to blame? Or is the Council spending it's resourses inappropriately?

One thing is for sure IMO Sheffield seems to be failing it's students. Anybody any comments.

Sorry these figures are scrunched up. I have tried to alter them but can't.

Thought this might be a one off so I searched through the archives and sorry to say it has been the same story year on year right back to 1996. At least they are consistantly c**p.

Ecclesall C of E Juniors:

English: 93%
Maths: 95%
Science: 97%


Lets not tar all Sheffield schools with the same brush, please.

It's the same old story - schools on the west / south west of the city doing well above the national average (as per example t020 points out), schools in the north & east well below (sorry, I know there are some exceptions but that is general picture).

As for Sheffield performing less well than Doncaster, Rotherham and Derbyshire - take a look at government stats on deprivation (do a google search for "deprivation indices england" or similar) and Sheffield has higher deprivation than other South Yorks LA's, and obviously Derbyshire. So on the not the fault of teachers and governers. Perhaps more resource needed for some schools in north & east though?

I think resources do come into the debate but I believe that there are different attitudes towards education accross the city. How many children of school age do you see in town on school days with their parents? Who is sanctioning this-parents or school.
There was also the story in last nights STAR about parents of pupils from etnic minorities taking there children out of school for over 4 weeks to visit the homeland.
If you want your children to succeed in life, support them in their education and try and support teachers and schools to do their jobs. Not all the blame can be apportioned to schools for failing children.

Originally posted by Longcol
It's the same old story - schools on the west / south west of the city doing well above the national average (as per example t020 points out), schools in the north & east well below (sorry, I know there are some exceptions but that is general picture).

As for Sheffield performing less well than Doncaster, Rotherham and Derbyshire - take a look at government stats on deprivation (do a google search for "deprivation indices england" or similar) and Sheffield has higher deprivation than other South Yorks LA's, and obviously Derbyshire. So on the not the fault of teachers and governers. Perhaps more resource needed for some schools in north & east though?

Have you ever been to Dalton in Rotherham and Hexthorpe/Intake in Doncaster just to name a couple of areas.

Originally posted by Mo
Have you ever been to Dalton in Rotherham and Hexthorpe/Intake in Doncaster just to name a couple of areas.

I agree. I can't imagine Sheffield being more deprived than Rotherham, Barnsley or Doncaster. It is home to some of the most affluent and least deprived areas in the entire country.

It always happens, as soon as education is broken down into a series of staistics, the true facts go out of the window. Worst of all, we start looking for someone to blame. As a teacher, I am not against some form of accountability, but there are so many other factors that affect the performance of kids in schools, that cannot be represented in cold figures.

Yes, been to them all and they would fit into a smallish corner of Manor / Wybourn / Fir Vale / Firth Park / Shirecliffe / Parsons Cross / Fox Hill etc etc

Also, in order to have an average one must understand that not all regions or schools can be above average.

Although some politicians believe you can. It's a common misunderstanding.

Originally posted by dodger
I think resources do come into the debate but I believe that there are different attitudes towards education accross the city. How many children of school age do you see in town on school days with their parents? Who is sanctioning this-parents or school.
There was also the story in last nights STAR about parents of pupils from etnic minorities taking there children out of school for over 4 weeks to visit the homeland.
If you want your children to succeed in life, support them in their education and try and support teachers and schools to do their jobs. Not all the blame can be apportioned to schools for failing children.

Some goo points here.


Originally posted by Phanerothyme

Also, in order to have an average one must understand that not all regions or schools can be above average.

Although some politicians believe you can. It's a common misunderstanding [/B]

Point taken.



Speaking as a parent, I think that SATs are a marvelous idea. As well as telling us how our children are performing they expose BAD schools with poor leadership and poor teachers - yes they do exist.
A school has a child from 5 - 16 years. If in that time it cannot teach them the basics of literacy and numeracy then there is something very wrong ( irrespective of home life). Many of our children are leaving school without these basic skills.

The tests say just as much about the school itself and how it is run than they do about the children in it.

Yes a good education is about other things as well as exam passes but not instead of them. When our children leave school they will be judged on how well they have performed in examinations. It is a fact of life!

People with the attitude ' what more can we expect of these children from impoverished backgrounds' do working class kids a great disservice. No wonder they fail with such low expectations of them.

well I have recently heard that my sons reception class teacher is planning in retiring. She is fed up of all the procedures and must not and must do - it isn't teaching anymore.

She has taught for a good while the teacher in question. She taught my now 20+ year old niece.

I remember at school the teachers becoming more concerned about how much paperwork they were expected to complete in addition to the work they had to complete for their classes.

As a new parent, I find it mind boggling what the schools expect from kids these days. I hate the idea of SATS, the pressure that some kids are put under not only by themselves and their familes but also in some instances their teachers - is disgusting.

I never much worried about my GCSE's, then again neither did the rest of our year. Stress levels that year must have been at an all time low and we achieved the highest results for our school in five years.
Also we didn't have options, just did 10 straght GCSE's (well some did but that is a whole different scandal!)

Moon Maiden

It is all down to a lack of trust. Politicians do not believe that teachers and their students will work properly without someone breathing over their shoulder all the time. this creates tension and diverts money away from the chalkface in order to set up monitoring systems.