Photo: For the fourth consecutive year Tauheedul Islam Girls High School is the county’s top school for progress (Credit: Courtesy of TIGHS)
Elham Asaad Buaras
Three Muslim schools occupied the top three positions in the nationwide GCSE and equivalent Progress 8 (P8) ranking by the Department for Education (DfE).
P8 measures the grade development that pupils make between primary and secondary school. It is a type of value-added measure, which means that pupils’ results are compared to the actual achievements of other pupils with similar prior attainment.
Remarkably, nine of the thirteen state-funded Muslim schools which entered their students for GCSE’s exams last year made the top 20 list.
For the fourth consecutive year, Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School in Blackburn is ranked the highest in the country for results by students with low prior achievement at primary school.
Tauheedul achieved a P8 score of +2.16 – the highest value-added score in the country, meaning pupils attending the school could expect to achieve on average over two GCSE grades better per subject than pupils who were at a similar level at the age of 11.
Tauheedul is followed by Eden Boys’ School, Birmingham (P8 score of +1.69) and Eden Girls’ School, Coventry (+1.61) all three are run by Star Academies and all were rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Sumeya Bhikhu, Principal of Eden Girls’ School, Coventry, told The Muslim News, “We are delighted with our place in this year’s league table which is testimony to the wonderful work going on in our school.”
Preston Muslim Girls High School also made the top 10 P8 rankings. The school’s Headteacher, Mufti Javid, told The Muslim News, ‘This year sees us breaking into the Top 10 Schools listings for the first time. I am delighted that the school has been able to maintain and even improve upon the exceptionally high standards which we have set ourselves for several years. This is a tribute to the superb work ethic of our school; to our dedicated pupils and our outstanding team of highly motivated staff.’
Two further Star Academies schools also ranked in the top 14 schools nationally. Eden Girls’ School, Waltham Forest and Eden Girls’ School, Slough, both achieved the same high ranking score of +1.19.
Mufti Hamid Patel CBE, Chief Executive of Star Academies, praised the schools’ exceptional achievements. “We are immensely proud of our people at Star Academies who continue to work hard to improve the life chances of our pupils.
The progress our pupils make is testimony not only to their hard work, but also to the determination and dedication of our teachers, support staff and our pupils’ parents,” he told The Muslim News in a statement.
“We are delighted by these results and hope to be able to continue to build on this success next year,” Patel added.
Bradford-based Feversham Academy also made the top 20 P8 rankings with a score of +1.12. Principal Sajida Muneer told The Muslim News, “The dedication of our students, staff and parents ensured that students at Feversham Academy continue to achieve outstanding results, and performed very strongly when compared to both local and national figures.”
Of the 95 Muslim schools (18 mixed, 33 boys and 44 girls.) that entered students for GCSE and equivalent exams, last year are, 82 are independent meaning their P8 results are not published by the DfE. Nevertheless, Muslim schools have also excelled in other indicators including Attainment 8 which measures the achievement of a pupil across eight different subjects.
The eight qualifications include English, Maths, 3 English Baccalaureate qualifications, including sciences, computer science, history, geography and languages, and 3 other additional approved qualifications.
Fifty-nine of Muslim schools featured (62 per cent) attained a higher Attainment 8 pass rates than the national average, according to an exclusive analysis by The Muslim News. On average, Muslim schools achieved an Attainment 8 score of 60.8, notably higher than the national average of 46.7.
Among Muslim schools, Al-Burhan Grammar School in Birmingham scored the highest Attainment 8 score (76.9); the ten girls who sat the exam achieved a Grade 5 or above in both English and Maths.
Speaking to The Muslim News Al-Burhan’s Head Teacher, Dr Mohammad Nasrullah, said, “We are immensely proud of our girls who were motivated and determined and as a result have all been able to follow their chosen pathways into further education. We feel that this is a direct result of the hard work and dedication shown by the students, parents and staff at Al-Burhan and we hope to continue this success with our 2020 GCSE results.”