Islington Arts and Media School can feel proud of its place in the London-wide school league tables today, having scored a very healthy 1046.3 in the important "value-added" column which indicates how well pupils have progressed since arriving at secondary school.

A score of 1000 indicates that pupils in a year group are progressing as well as expected based on their Sats scores recorded at the end of primary school. IAMS's value-added score of 1046.3, showing better-than-expected progress since Year 6, is the 13th highest in the capital.

The specialist Arts and Media school on Turle Road was praised for its "inspirational" school leadership at its last Ofsted report and commended on "outstanding" features of its curriculum teaching. The school has seen its GCSE results improve annually over the past few years, and provides revision classes and after-school clubs in core GCSE subjects to help students achieve the best results they can.

44% of students attained the national benchmark figure of five A*-C grades including Maths and English in 2010. The school has seen its results for five or

more A*-C grades in all subjects rocket from 51% in 2006, to 94% in 2010. Grades are improving at above the national average rate, and IAMS celebrated its best-ever results last summer.

Islington Council's executive member for children and young people, Cllr Richard Watts, says, "These figures confirm that secondary schools in Islington are getting

better all the time, and our schools are providing young people with an

excellent education. We're closing the national gap and I'm particularly pleased that this

includes our English and maths results.  I'm looking forward to

seeing Islington's GCSE results continue to improve even further over

the next few years."

Gladesmore Community School in nearby South Tottenham and Mossbourne Community Academy also reported good value-added scores locally, with Gladesmore scoring 1044.3 and Mossbourne 1067.2, the fourth best in London.

IAMS is now looking forward to the new school buildings which are due to be completed by the end of 2012.

Image: chris__reed