Three Jewish secondary schools have been placed among England’s top five per cent of mainstream state schools, ranked according to academic progress made by pupils 11-16.
Hasmonean High School, JFS and Yesodey Hatorah in London produced outstanding “value-added” scores in the government school league tables for 2008.
These scores measure how far children perform above expectations, given their academic ability on arrival. According to The Times, the Hasmonean was among the top 50 value-added schools in the country this year.
Beverley Perin, head of Hasmonean girls’ school, said: “We’re delighted that, year-on-year, our children are making such remarkable progress academically. This represents all our children, not just our high-flyers.”
But she said that equally important to the school were pupils’ Jewish studies and their charitable contribution — shown by £1,000 raised by 15-year-olds for care packages for Israeli soldiers last week.
Two strictly Orthodox schools, the Menorah Grammar for Boys and the Beis Rochel d’Satmar for Girls in London, recorded 100 per cent of pupils achieving five GCSE grades A* to C, including maths and English.
Only a dozen girls at the Satmar school actually sat exams, however.
But the tables do show that strictly Orthodox girls schools achieve good results at GCSE — in contrast to some of the equivalent boys’ schools, where pupils often leave for yeshivah before GCSE.
But one strictly Orthodox school, Beth Jacob Grammar in London, was listed as having no pupils gaining a minimum of five GCSEs, including maths and English. This was because, last year, girls took the International GCSE in maths, not accredited by the government.
“It’s an exam taken by many top independent schools,” a Beth Jacob spokesman said.
“It’s more academic and our results were equal to, if not better, than last year. But we’ve decided to go back to GCSE because we’d like our results in the league tables.”
How they fared across the country
THOSE THAT SCORED AT GCSE
Schools ranked according to percentage of students gaining five or more grade A*-C GCSEs including Maths and English (in brackets: GCSE score based on points per student)
| Menorah Grammar | 100% | (439.1) |
| Beis Rochel de Satmar | 100% | (256.5) |
| Menorah High School for Girls | 96 % | (485.8) |
| Beis Chinuch | 93 % | (350.4) |
| Lubavitch House Girls | 92 % | (397.2) |
| Immanuel College | 91 % | (471.1) |
| King David High Manchester | 90 % | (507.7) |
| King David High Liverpool | 87 % | (460.2) |
| London Jewish Girls High | 87 % | (440.8) |
| Hasmonean | 86 % | (498.2) |
| Beis Yaakov High Salford | 86 % | (442.1) |
| JFS | 84 % | (453.2) |
| Yesodey Hatorah Girls Schl | 83 % | (523.7) |
| Manchester Mesivta | 77 % | (397.5) |
| Beis Malka | 77 % | (288.1) |
| Bnos Yisroel Schools | 75 % | (229.9) |
| Gateshead Jewish High | 69 % | (284.1) |
| King Solomon High | 57 % | (407.7) |
| Pardes House Grammar | 53 % | (255.7) |
| Etz Chaim | 0 % | (304.5) |
| Beth Jacob Grammar | – % | (362.1) |
| Beis Rochel Manchester | – % | (155.3) |
| Gateshead Jewish Boarding | – % | (11.7) |
National average 47 % (national average 390 points, based on GCSE score of A* = 58 points; A, 52: B, 46; C,40) Schools ranked according to value-added rating
THOSE THAT ADDED VALUE
Value-added scores that measure academic progress from 11 to 16
| Hasmonean | 1046.9 |
| JFS | 1043.9 |
| Yesodey Hatorah | 1043.6 |
| King Solomon | 1027.7 |
| King David High Manchester | 1016.3 |
| King David High | 1010.7 |
| Manchester Mesivta | 1002.0 |
THOSE THAT SCORED AT A/AS
A score of 1030.35 or above = top 5 %
of mainstream schools in England. A score of 1011.40 or above = top 25 % nationally, while below 991.05 = bottom 40 %.
Schools ranked according to A-level
points per pupil
| King David High Liverpool | 889.1 |
| Immanuel College | 836.5 |
| Hasmonean | 816.8 |
| JFS | 803.6 |
| King David High Manchester | 797.5 |
| Menorah Grammar | 774.7 |
| King Solomon High | 685.0 |
National average 739.8 (270 points for grade A; 240, B; 210,C; 180, D; 150, E; with half as much for AS-levels)
