After my blog on the Scotland v England education stakes, a few local friends have asked me about the performance of schools in the Borders relative to Scotland and England. Well, here’s the overall chart:
Borders education is a little better on average than across Scotland, but it’s following a similar pattern of flatlining while England appears to be steaming ahead.
A couple of years ago I obtained a breakdown by high school, which you can see here:
There’s quite a big gap between Selkirk, Kelso, Jedburgh, Peebles and Earlston on the one hand and Galashiels, Hawick and the two Berwickshire ones on the other.
A big factor in school performance, particularly in the state sector, is the intake of children. In other words kids from cosy middle class families where Dad reads a section of Dickens every night and lectures them about astrophysics on the way to church every Sunday tend to do a bit better.
Nonetheless, you’d expect schools to make some difference. It seems amazing that even the best and most desirable Borders schools can’t get 40% of their pupils 5 pretty mediocre exam qualifications.
There is some good news, though. Now that the Borders Party has been put in charge of education locally, we can expect a marked improvement. Throw away those St Mary’s and Longridge Towers brochures, folks, and prepare to upgrade the 4×4 instead!
lol at least 3 good jokes in there. good job!