Tauheedul Islam Girls High School & Sixth Form College is the county’s top school for progress (Photo: TIGHS)

Rida Shaban

Two Blackburn-based Muslim schools run by the same Trust have topped the Department of Education’s report for academic achievement.

Tauheedul Islam Girls’ and Boys’ schools, both run by the Tauheedul Education Trust, have overtaken grammar schools to occupy first and third places in the annual Progress 8 report. The exceptional improvement of their pupils’ grades has propelled them to the top of the Government’s newly introduced standards for judging schools.

When considering the average A*-C achievements in five or more subject including English and Maths, the Blackburn with Darwen area has consistently fallen short of the national average. This has significantly highlighted the exceptional achievement of the Tauheedul Islam schools as they have defied the apparent drawbacks of poor local averages and the disadvantaged backgrounds of pupils to score the top spots among the country’s schools.

Despite the state-funded Muslim schools leading the way in the Progress 8 report, grammar schools remain dominant in the Attainment 8 report, scoring the highest overall grades.

The schools pride themselves on the fact that they do not accept a disadvantaged background as an excuse for substandard performance.

Ninety-four percent of the girls from disadvantaged backgrounds achieved a ‘good pass’ in English and Maths and sixty-one percent of Tauheedul students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieved the English Baccalaureate, nationally only a tenth of such students achieve this.

Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School & Sixth Form College Executive Principal, Hamid Patel, told The Muslim News: “As exams get tougher, the Government figures show that we are continuing to achieve amazing results with our students – regardless of their prior ability and background. Some of our most vulnerable learners – those who have performed poorly at primary school and those who are in foster care or from low-income families – have achieved so well.”

The new Progress 8 and the Attainment 8 measures have been introduced by the Government to compensate for the shortcomings of the antiquated system of measuring a school’s performance by the percentage of its pupils that achieve five GCSEs at A*-C including Maths and English. The Progress 8 compares the GCSE results of students who had the same starting point at the age of 11 across eight GCSE subjects. This is believed to be a fairer system as it judges the best schools based on how much they encourage their pupils to improve. It is hoped that this change will also provide an incentive for a broader range of subjects to be offered.

The new standards mean that schools are now judged based on how much their students improve rather than only their attainment. However, this has come under criticism as grammar school pupils almost always exceed their expectations, meaning the new system may favour grammar schools disproportionately.

2016 TOP TEN SCHOOLS FOR PROGRESS 8

Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School, Blackburn;
The Steiner Academy, Hereford;
Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School, Blackburn;
Harris Academy, Battersea;
St Andrew’s Catholic School, Leatherhead;
Ark King Solomon Academy, London;
The City Academy, Hackney;
Harris Girls’ Academy, East Dulwich;
Sheffield Park Academy, Sheffield;
Outwood Academy Portland, Worksop.