Education
Christchurch has two infant schools, two junior schools, five primary schools (combined infant and junior) and three secondary schools. The secondary schools are, in order of size: Twynham School (1,515 pupils), Highcliffe School (1,347 pupils) and the Grange School (637 pupils). The secondary schools share a sixth form with the three sites providing different courses.
Schools in Christchurch fall under the jurisdiction of Dorset County Council. From the 2008 General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results, Dorset was ranked 32nd out of 148 local authorities in England based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least five A* to C grades at GCSE level including maths and English. Twynham was the best performing school in Christchurch in 2009: 67% of pupils gained five or more GCSEs at A* to C grade including maths and English compared to the national average of 49.8%. Highcliffe achieved 62% but the Grange School was less successful: only 40% of pupils achieved five or more A* to C grade results. Twynham was also the best performing school for A-level results with an average score of 727.8 points per student, slightly below the national average of 739.3. Highcliffe School School students averaged 618.4 points and the Grange School 571.9 points.
Read more about this topic: Christchurch, Dorset
Famous quotes containing the word education:
“The fetish of the great university, of expensive colleges for young women, is too often simply a fetish. It is not based on a genuine desire for learning. Education today need not be sought at any great distance. It is largely compounded of two things, of a certain snobbishness on the part of parents, and of escape from home on the part of youth. And to those who must earn quickly it is often sheer waste of time. Very few colleges prepare their students for any special work.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
“Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Because of these convictions, I made a personal decision in the 1964 Presidential campaign to make education a fundamental issue and to put it high on the nation’s agenda. I proposed to act on my belief that regardless of a family’s financial condition, education should be available to every child in the United States—as much education as he could absorb.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)