The performance of our students at Bristol Brunel, Bristol Metropolitan and John Cabot Academies was once again a delight and positive outcome and a reflection of the quality of the teaching they received from

our teaching staff and the support from mentors and learning assistants and their families.

All three of our Academies performed comfortably above the government’s floor target of 35% of students achieving 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths. BBA for the second year running performed above 40% and BMA continued its impressive performance from 2010, crossing the 40% threshold for the first time. 73% of students at JCA also achieved five higher grades including English and Maths.

Whilst the government is less focused now on the percentage of students gaining 5 A-*-C grades than before, we in the CLF still see this as a key indicator as it is a reflection of the way that our curriculum is meeting the needs of more students than ever before. For some students, a C grade in English and Maths is very challenging but it should not mean that this is a barrier to success in other subjects. For that reason, I was thrilled to see 87% of students at BBA, 95% at BMA and 96% of students at JCA achieve at this level. In total, 92% of the 417 students in the federation gained 5 A*-C grades.

In terms of the expected progress in English and Maths, we are delighted with the progress shown by so many of our students who either have English as an additional language or who joined our Academies considerably below national standards at the age of 11. We take particular notice of the value added indicator from KS2 to 4 as it is a representation of every student’s progress irrespective of the level of performance they have shown. In 2011, students at all three academies produced an overall score in excess of the mean of 1000 but the performance at BMA (1020.3) and at JCA (1020.8) was particularly impressive.

At post 16, our Year 12 students the first products of our collaborative post 16 structure in the CLF, produced results that were better than 2010. This was a result of our improved advice and guidance at BBA and JCA with the result that pass grades improved by 19% and 15% respectively. BMA students joined the CLF post 16 for the first time and were less successful in comparison, but we were delighted that so many of the Year 11 students from 2009-10 chose to remain within the CLF and for those who found the leap to post 16 hard, additional support is now in place to help them.

A level results at JCA continue to be impressive and stable and reflects the expertise that comes with an established VI Form teaching team. At BBA, the A level results were the second set of results since the Academy opened in 2007 and whilst the number of passes dropped, we saw a big increase in the number of higher grades awarded.

My congratulations go to all of our students and staff and I look forward to adding Hans Price Academy and King’s Oak Academy results to the analysis in 2012.

For a complete breakdown of the results click here

David Carter-Executive Principal of the Cabot Learning Federation