Telford school joins top 100 in country for progress

Hadley Learning Community is the only Shropshire school to be included in a list of the top 100 schools for progress.

And it has been singled out for praise from Minister for Schools Nick Gibb.

Hadley, which takes pupils aged from five to 16, has been named as one of the best in England based on progress made from key stage two, when children leave primary school, to key stage four, GCSE level.

The school on Waterloo Road in Hadley has received a letter of congratulations from Mr Gibb.

In his letter to the school's headmistress, Dr Gill Eatough, Mr Gibb said: "I am writing to convey my warmest congratulations to you, your staff and pupils for your schools excellent value added score in 2015.

"Your school is one of the top non-selective state funded schools in England based on the key stage two to key stage four value added measure.

"This reflects the fantastic progress made by your pupils since the end of primary school.

"Thank you for your work in this important area of a young person's education and congratulations again to your staff for your hard work and professionalism."

The school is the only one in Shropshire to have made the top 100.

It says that receiving the accolade is an incredible achievement and its success is down to the effort and work ethic of the 2015 year 11 pupils.

Each pupil's value added score, on which this result is calculated, is based on comparing their performance when finishing secondary school with the average performance of other pupils with the same or similar results at the end of primary education.

The individual scores are averaged for the school which indicates the value the school has added on average for their pupils.

The performance of Hadley Learning Community is a welcome boost to education within Telford & Wrekin.

It comes after high profile problems at Sutherland Co-Operative Academy, Wrockwardine Wood Arts Academy, Lakeside Academy and Phoenix Academy, after they all received the worst possible "inadequate" rating from Government education watchdog Ofsted.

The schools have now been merged or relaunched. Phoenix has been renamed The Telford Langley School, Lakeside is now known as The Telford Park School while Sutherland and Wrockwardine Wood have merged and moved on to a new site near Oakengates Leisure Centre to become The Telford Priory School.

Dr Eatough, who became principal of Hadley Learning Community in January 2004, said the letter from the minister was a boost to everyone at the school and reward for the hard work of teachers.

She said: "It is brilliant, I am absolutely delighted, it is a fantastic achievement for the school.

"We didn't know until we received the letter how we had done.

"We knew our own value added points but you don't know how it is going to compare with other schools."