'Superhead' at Hull school takes on a formidable challenge to raise GCSEs

The strugglers

The head of one of Britain's worst-performing schools has been set a Herculean task.

The head of one of Britain's worst-performing schools has been set a Herculean task.

Kingswood School in Hull is one of just four in England where only 3 per cent of pupils gained five good GCSEs.

Kevin Beaton's job is to raise that figure to 20 per cent by this time next year.

The six-fold increase in exam performance is laid down in local targets set for the school, one of 25 to be reopened under new management as part of the Government's contentious policy of giving failing schools a "fresh start".

Mr Beaton, the "superhead" who took over the former Perronett Thompson School in September last year, freely admits that staff "did not get it right" in the new school's first academic year.

Now teachers are focusing on one in five of the children who will take GCSEs next year for special help, in a programme to help them over the threshold of five good GCSE passes, a crucial benchmark for league table success.

Mr Beaton said: "We were very disappointed with the results we got this year. We had a number of youngsters who got four GCSEs at grade A* to C but didn't get the fifth. We are analysing things quite carefully. We didn't get it right in the first year." Thirty-six children are in Mr Beaton's target group this year, identified as those most likely to hit five good grades.

Kingswood's policy makes explicit what many headteachers have said for years: schools have to concentrate their efforts on children on the edge of getting five good passes, and give less attention to those in the long tail of underachievement.

Mr Beaton strongly denies that the policy penalises the majority of children who are not chosen for special help, but is philosophical about the need to hit the Government's league table targets. He said: "If we have 20 per cent getting at least five A to C grade and 70 per cent get at least one A* to G grade, everybody thinks we have done a great job. If everybody gets at least one A* to G grade and only 8 per cent gets five A* to Cs, everybody thinks we have done a bad job."

The school deals with all the social and educational problems that dog those at the bottom of the league tables. Half of the children qualify for free school meals, and 300 of its 970 pupils have special needs.

Mr Beaton said: "We have set a target of 20 per cent getting five A* to Cs at GCSE in the summer. It's a huge great jump and a tough target, but we are going to do our best to meet it. We are going to get as close as we can."