GENE BRODIE, our education correspondent, has been crunching some numbers ahead of the new term. It doesn’t make encouraging reading

If you are short of things to do in the New Year, there might be nothing more interesting to do than play a quick round of: How are Croydon primary schools doing?

The Department for Education has quietly popped online some very revealing figures.

And these figures ought to be very worrying as far as Croydon’s education department, heads and teaching staff are concerned, as they appear to show that our borough’s primary schools are among the worst performing in London.

The DfE’s data can be seen here: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

Based on that, I’ve produced this abbreviated table, which shows Croydon’s primary schools’ performance in comparison with the national averages, with other London boroughs and with other local authorities in England.

Looked at historically, the worst performing educational areas in England and Wales have been the likes of Liverpool, Hull and Bristol.

According to these latest DfE figures, Croydon’s educational performance is nearer to very depressed areas than to our geographically closest neighbours such as Sutton and Bromley, and worse than inner London boroughs such as Lewisham or Lambeth.

What can be going on?

A breakdown of the performance of individual Croydon schools can be found here:

Overview of ks2 education results

Those highlighted in yellow are at or above average national performance.

Both Wattenden, in Coulsdon, recently “academised” as New Valley, and Fairchildes, in New Addington, are schools which are out-performing all other primaries in Croydon. How are they managing to do this?

If they can achieve these results then why are the rest of the borough’s primary schools not able to come somewhere close?

Previously from Gene Brodie:

• Whitehall warns council over unlawful reading lessons fees
• GCSE figures put Croydon schools at the bottom of their class
• Croydon Tory MP chooses Sutton grammar school for his son

Coming to Croydon

• Purley and Coulsdon debating society: Philp v Benn, Jan 5
• David Lean Cinema, Mr Turner, Jan 8
• David Lean Cinema, Leviathan, Jan 13
• Norwood Society talk: Penge, the making of a suburb, Jan 15
• David Lean Cinema, The 78 Project Movie, Jan 15
• David Lean Cinema, Hannah Arendt, Jan 20
• David Lean Cinema, The Imitation Game, Jan 22
• South Croydon business breakfast, Jan 24
• David Lean Cinema, Night Will Fall, Jan 27 (Holocaust Memorial Day)
• David Lean Cinema, Kon-Tiki, Jan 29
• Soul Symphony Community Choir taster session, Feb 3
• Norwood Society talk: Crystal Palace and Dulwich, Feb 19
• Norwood Society talk: Charlies Dickens in Norwood, Mar 19
• Norwood Society: Balloons and airships at Crystal Palace, Apr 16

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