London schools adviser 'confident about league tables'

The leader of the government's National Challenge scheme to improve standards in secondary schools is confident that improvements in GCSE results will be seen with the publication of league tables tomorrow (January 13th).

Professor David Woods, the government's chief adviser for London schools, told the Guardian that he believes London's schools will perform better than ever in this year's league tables.

He tells the paper that the schools are expected to be at least three per cent above the national average.

The current National Challenge scheme, which aims to see all schools have more than 30 per cent of pupils achieve five A*-C GCSEs including maths and English, was piloted in London before being rolled out across the country.

"We are well on course for no school in the country to be below the floor target of 30 per cent by 2011," he tells the paper.

Government predictions suggest that around 270 schools will fail to reach the 30 per cent target this year.

Written by Theo Foulds

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