Littlehampton Academy’s maths marvels celebrate

For the first time since the school opened two years ago, more than half of the year group have already celebrated maths passes at the top A* to C grades, well before the main results come out in August.

The school said students had responded well to the policy of entering them early for exams in November and again in March, building on other strategies such as smaller classes, intervention groups, master classes and maths tutors, which had all paid dividents.

Results across the whole ability range are already better than last August and many students will take the opportunity to push their grades higher still in the June exams.

Principal Steve Jewell said: “There has been a huge effort to bring the maths results up to approach the very high standards traditionally achieved in English.

“This is far and away the best set of maths results in our history. Congratulations to all our students and teachers who have been justly rewarded for their efforts.”

Maths was identified as a subject where improvement was seen as a priority in the academy’s latest Ofsted inspection report six months ago.

Inspectors stated: “Achievement in mathematics is much weaker (than in English), although it is now beginning to rise.”

Its predecessor, Littlehampton Community School, had struggled with maths results for a number of years and before becoming an academy, the maths department went through a major reorganisation, with new staff recruited in an effort to drive up achievements by students, at a time when the school came close to being placed into special measures.