Building Schools for the Future Programme in Fenland. Thomas Clarkson Community College

A DRAMATIC drop in GCSE results at three Fenland schools has been blamed on disruption caused by the £100 million Building Schools for the Future programme.

Gayle Gorman, service director (learning) for Cambridgeshire County Council said: “The BSF programme in Fenland….. has been a significant drain on the time and energies of senior leaders and governing bodies despite the significant additional resources that were provided.

“It is probably no coincidence that performance declined in both of the two lead BSF schools in 2011 and, indeed, there was a significant decline in three out of the four Fenland second schools.”

However Ms Gorman was unable to explain why Cromwell Community College, Chatteris, “had a significant improvement in examination performance”.

It went from 47 per cent passes of those gaining 5 A* -C including maths and English to 63 per cent in 2011.

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