Many academies falling short on exam standards

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Seven of the 12 academies in the region which sat GCSE exams last summer have fallen short of the target set by Ministers of getting at least 30 per cent of pupils to achieve five A* to C grades including English and maths.

The Government launched a national crackdown to bring all secondary schools up to this standard by 2011. Under the National Challenge initiative schools that fail to demonstrate they can deliver improvements to reach the benchmark risk being closed and replaced by academies or entered into a partnership with a stronger school.

The latest league tables are set to show, however, that more than half of the academies which took part in last year's GCSEs in the Yorkshire region are not making the grade despite some having been open for more than three years.

Academies were launched by Tony Blair's Government to replace struggling schools in inner-city or deprived areas. They are normally run independent of local council control and are based in new school buildings and backed by a private sponsor such as a business, faith group or charity.

The lowest academy score in Yorkshire was Barnsley Academy, which opened in 2006, where less than one-in-five pupils reached the five A* to C target.

It is one of three in South Yorkshire run by the United Learning Trust, which has come under fire for the performance of its two schools in Sheffield.

Sheffield Park Academy became the first of the flagship schools in the region to be placed in special measures last year and Children's Secretary Ed Balls has demanded an action plan from the ULT after Ofsted said efforts to improve standards so far had been inadequate. Sheffield Park saw 25 per cent of pupils making the grade last summer while its sister school Sheffield Springs Academy had an even lower pass rate with 23 per cent of pupils achieving five A* to C GCSEs including English and maths.

The Bradford Academy, which opened in 2007, saw 24 per cent of pupils making the grade while the Archbishop Sentamu Academy in Hull saw 28 per cent of pupils achieve the standards in its first GCSE results.

David Young Community Academy in Leeds fell back below the 30 per cent benchmark but Trinity Academy in Thorne saw more than half its students achieve the target making it the strongest purpose-built academy in Yorkshire.

Head vows to repeat results in new role

The head of Yorkshire's most successful academy has vowed to repeat the success having taken over another secondary school.

Dixons Academy, in Bradford, saw 90 per cent of last year's GCSE pupils achieving the benchmark of five A* to C GCSE grades including English and maths.

The school is set to feature in a league table of the country's best performing 200 state schools today. Its results were also the best in Bradford and the 6th best in Yorkshire, behind five selective grammar schools.

Dixons' principal Nick Weller said, however, that it was unfair to compare his school's performance with other academies.

"We benefit from being 20-years-old. We opened as a city technology college a long time ago and then became an academy, while most academies are relatively new. We also started from scratch as a new school whereas many academies are trying to turn around some of the most challenging schools in the country."