According to The Department for Education there are 21,370
primary schools that have been tested for Key Stage 2 (i.e. the 7 to 11 year
olds) for 2013; the results of which have just been released. That’s a very
large class. Out of these, 549 scored 100% in those pupils achieving Level 4 or
above in reading, writing and maths. Amongst this select group comes
Chislehurst (St Nicholas) C of E Primary School in School Road, Chislehurst.
(To check a school’s performance go to www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance)
Not content with being in this select 2.5% of schools,
Chislehurst C of E goes one step further. It also scores 100% in the more
selective measure, that of the percentage of pupils achieving level 4B or above
in reading and maths and level 4 or above in writing, of which there are only
164 schools in total, putting Chislehurst C of E well into the top 1% of
schools.
Pushing our analytical luck here at Village News we then had
a look at the percentage of pupils achieving Level 5 or above. Chislehurst C of
E scores 59%, again putting it well into the top 1%. To put this in some form
of context, and to round up, 6 out 10 Key Stage 2 pupils at the school attain a
level which the Department for Education classes as “exceptional”.
It is true that Chislehurst is a well-heeled London suburb
with plenty of pushy parents who no doubt boiler-room their kids at the drop of
a hat, but this happens in many other schools in equally affluent areas of the
country that don’t score so highly. In any event, it’s not just Chislehurst
children who attend the school. It is a fact that faith schools are massively
over-represented in those schools achieving 100%. The Church of England’s head
of education has insisted that C of E schools perform well because they have a distinctive
ethos, rooted in Christian values, with teachers that develop children’s social,
spiritual and emotional intelligence…alongside their academic performance.
Village News asked head teacher, John Paddington, why his
school was so successful. He replied, “Quite simply the children enjoy
their learning, they enjoy being in school and when you couple this with
skilled teaching staff and our close family community it is a recipe for
success. However the children don't just spend their time practising the '4
Rs', we do a lot of sport, music and science too!”
So how do we get our little ones into such a prestigious state
school? As usual with a faith school, it’s not, first and foremost where you live.
It helps enormously if the parents have been attending one of the three Church
of England churches in Chislehurst at least once a fortnight over the previous
2 years and then get the priest to attest to this.
Given this fact, expect at least three churches in
Chislehurst to be even more stuffed full of worshippers next week.
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