An analysis of new data from Ofqual has revealed that the Isle of Wight recorded the worst examination results of any English county in 2022 in both GCSE and A levels.
The results were so poor that the Isle of Wight shows up in its own unique very pale blue colour in interactive maps comparing the examination results of English counties on the Ofqual website.
In 2022, 65.8% of Island students aged 16 achieved Grade 4 and above in all the GCSE examinations they took. This is over 10% below the national average of 76.3%. In the next worst county (Merseyside), 71.3% of students managed at least a Grade 4 in their GCSEs.
In individual subjects, 68.7% of 16-year-old Island students achieved Grade 4 and above in Maths compared with 75.2% nationwide; 72.6% of Isle of Wight youngsters managed Grade 4 and above in English, with 77.2% of students achieving this grade in England as a whole.
The A level results were equally dire. 71.2% of A level students aged 18 achieved a grade of C and above in the Isle of Wight, compared with 82.7% in England as a whole. In the next worst county (Bedfordshire), 75.8% managed at least a C grade.
Looking at individual subjects, only 70.1% of our 18-year-olds were awarded grade C and above in History, a full 17% below the national average of 87.8%. Just 61.4% of Island 6th formers received C and above in Chemistry – the worst in the country – below the next worst county (Bedfordshire), where 63.4% of their youngsters achieved a C grade or above.
In 2013, Isle of Wight educational outcomes were so bad that the government ordered Hampshire Council Officers to take over the leadership of Island education. The officers pledged that GCSE exam results would be at the national average by 2016 – 5 years ago.
Almost 10 years on, the target of reaching the national average is still far from being met.
Stop smoking pot and get back to your books kids!
This is no surprise.
Looks as though the Isle of Wight has completely faded away on the map. This is terrible news for our young people.
Many children here come from benefit paid for homes. Tax credits or Universal credits fund these children, and the parents or more often parent, cares little for the children, just using such to ensure cheap subsidised roof and council tax, and an easy lifestyle of not working or just ‘doing a few hours’ to claim such.
The children ‘see’ this and as their parents or parent lives fine on tax credits, then sees no reason to bother to put themselves out to learn, rightly assuming they to can get pregnant and be kept, without full time working for life.
Such easy cash needs to be cut to the very bone to ensure this attitude changes
What an entitled, tiny minded, little Britain, completely up-yourself, tone-deaf, bone-headed, pile of doodoo view. I’m so offended by your post that my dead Grandfather gasped in his coffin! Yes, your dunderheaded, downright nasty post has echoed through history like a turd hitting an empty bowl.
Here here! There are some nasty people on here, easy to say without seeing their screwed up ugly faces
So Hampshire are no better at running our schools than was IW council?
Yet Hampshire schools didn’t do badly. Odd, that.
Controversal, BUT TRUE. The IW has very low numbers of Asian students.
Not students fault, IOW allowed Hampshire to interfere and they needed our students to fail to make theirs look better. Everything under Hampshire has taken away from the Island and has not improved – Fire, Police, Children’s Services etc.
Shameful really. Can’t blame the buildings cos they’ve all had shiny new ones.
The underlying reason for this is the council. You will have to go a long way to find a council more obsessed with tourism and events and attracting people to visit. As such real everyday issues for Islanders, like education and employment, have a lower focus than in other places. It’s clear as day. And also this council, like previous ones, always think they know better, and follow pet projects (usually linked to tourism) far too much. This rural schools thing is another – doesn’t make any economic sense.
nope – woke teachers are the issue
yeah but wokeism is nationwide, no reason why IoW is more woke. It’s like the council doesn’t feel shame or think it’s important enough.
Explain “woke” to me, because all you will do is expose your National Front membership card.
A variation on pc cultural marxism to put it bluntly.
Many reasons for these figures especially if you use the funding model per pupil which is less on the island than the mainland. I would suggest getting a grammar school, it would improve educational standards and childrens attainment but also raise the standards of the woeful comprehensives who would lose funding to the grammar school. Rememeber grammar schools make achievement a pre requisite where as comprehensives teach to the lowest common denominaty
Perhaps if the teachers focused on reading, writing, arithmetic and other basic fundamental skills needed in an education rather than spending time teaching kids about identity politics and racial bias, then they would have probably fared better at exam stage.
a distinct lack of discipline and sanctions also contribute to the poor standards achieved.
if a kid knew that poverty without benefits and hardship awaited them in adult life if they didn’t work hard at school, instead of a life of sponging off the state was on offer, then they would achieve better grades – as do kids in countries where that is the reality
Well said
Awful lot of eejits in the comments of Island Echo isn’t there.
Don’t be so hard on yourself.
Yeah
Very accurately put, however you have to remember the majority of the younger teachers come from the generation of woke, touchy feely, everyone is right, no one is wrong, they do not know how to instill a disciplined environment in classrooms which is essential to good teaching.
So, basically, your argument is that Isle of Wight kids are doing worse than everywhere else in England, worse than schools that take kids from inner city sink estates, because we have the “wokest” teachers?
Honestly, your far-right gibberish gets more ridiculous by the day.
I do think that there is a proven correlation between poverty. low expectation and poor outcomes, which is not helped by poor quality education.So who puts it right,children only get one chance at a good education, teachers can be re trained and have over thirty years to get it right. We are quick to exclude a child for poor behaviour but have you ever heard of a teacher being sacked for incopetance.
Why can’t/won’t teachers be sacked for incompetence? Because there’s no replacement, and the heads know it. Even banners outside schools ‘train to teach’ aren’t cutting it.
Absolutely spot on.
Don’t blame the teachers,they have no choice over what or how to teach,they are directed to do so by people who have no clue or even been a teacher. Teachers also spend so much time doing stuff that is Council imposed from recording ,form filling ,trying to evidence everything, lesson planning student daily reports etc – I loved school 50yrs ago, teachers teached the 3rs and social skills – if you wanted a fight then at lunch time you were given some boxing gloves and we all went to watch on field/PE Hall – with embarrassment each student sorted their differences out before and no fighting took place. Funny how so many benefit claiming families – their kid’s have iPhone and chav expensive clothing while hard working tax paying struggle and shop in Matalan etc. Just watch those in JD sports!.
Too much Wokism being taught instead of old school education.
Don’t blame the kids, it’s the terrible quality of teaching
And islanders still vote overwhelmingly for the conservative party who have decimated funding for education over the last 12 years. Nothing will change until we start voting in the interests of our kids.
“voting in the interest of our kids”
So what political party would you suggest we vote for (and your reasoning)
We’re all doomed! There are no decent politicians, Like there ever really was! World is going to the dogs, hope some aliens turn up soon and show us another way.
Take me with you!!!!!!
What political party has the interests of the children, they cannot vote, and while I agree the conservatives have hardly set the world alight you have to remember the labour party emptied the treasury and sold most of our gold reserves off for half price, so not surprising there was major cut backs, that or we went bankcrupt oh yes then they elected the wonderful Corbyn , the terrorist lover. and you wonder why the labour party will never be elected..
Living on the Isle of Wight fifty plus years ago, I had attached to myself a failed eleven plus and two O’levels; any statistical observer could say my future was cast as without foundation – mediocre at best. As a family we left the Island moving to another far away country. Furthermore, I believed such results, a labelled failure, were incomprehensible; I need to do something – aspirational! The following decades, studying, working, raising a family became the norm: achieving three technical college diplomas and two master’s degrees and, winning many awards enabled a binning of such a past.
Good for you.
You’ll only get voted down or abuse from those have lived their life a polar opposite.
Nothing wrong with having ambition and wanting to do better.
I grew up on a sink estate in London and left school at 14 years old. (as in just didn’t bother to go anymore) The teachers were not interested and the level of violence in school was extreme.
Still managed to achieve various trade qualifications, a degree and a Masters all without attending full time university or getting any help from the government.
Boring old fart, yup, almost certainly but blaming everyone for a poor start and low standard of living, no….
Yeah we’ll just look at the inspiration they’re getting from their elders , (Boris) in positions of power and authority!! Why would you bother when it’s near nigh impossible to afford to go to university or save to buy your own house let alone heat it!
These kids have had a tough time of it these past couple of years, we all have we know bla bla bla, before you say it. Nobody knows who or what they are or aspire to now as the world has gone mad!!!