Pontypool homeowner uses Google Earth to win decking planning row
The application stated the decking had been completed in October 2017 and a statement from a neighbour supported Mr Leek's claim it had been built since at least 2019, when they moved to St Augustine Road in Griffithstown, Pontypool. As part of his evidence, Mr Leek also dug out old photographs dating back to August 2017, when the raised wooden platform was constructed. The council planning department said the 4.84m wide, and 3.82m long, light grey composite decking was 83cm from the ground level, meaning it is just over half a metre over the height that requires planning approval, which is 30cm. Planning officer Simon Pritchard said the council accepted the evidence put forward by Mr Leek which included a Google Earth aerial photograph from June 2018.Mr Pritchard said the council did not have any evidence itself, or from anyone else, to contradict the information provided.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on GCSE results: the Covid generation has surpassed expectations
Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have overcome the obstacles placed in their way by the Covid pandemic to a striking degree. The cohort who received their GCSE results on Thursday did not take Sats at the end of primary school. Their crucial transition to secondary education was disrupted, with students missing chunks of formal learning and experiences such as school trips. This year's strong results should thus be celebrated as a triumph over adversity. Teachers deserve enormous credit for stewarding these pupils through what is always a demanding set of tests. Like last week's A-levels, however, these results also give rise to concerns. Chief among these are the widening attainment gaps between richer and poorer areas, and between better-off and disadvantaged pupils. Predictably, the poorest children have suffered the worst effects from Covid disruption. On some metrics, including school attendance, decades of progress have unravelled. The number of candidates passing compulsory resits of maths and English has also declined – a situation rightly described by one exam board chief, Jill Duffy, as a crisis. Rectifying the unjust situation whereby there is no pupil premium after year 11 would be a good start. Bridget Phillipson has already announced the expansion of a scheme offering dedicated support and mentoring to schools in England that are 'stuck'. But while pupils in the north-east and north-west continue to score lower grades on average than those in and around London, this is not a simple tale of north and south. Comparing pre- and post-pandemic outcomes, a new report from the Institute for Government (IfG) highlights complexities that require fresh approaches. While councils have lost most of the power they once had over schools, the significant attainment gap between the least and most successful local authority areas points to some highly localised, place-specific effects. Multiple attempts to boost results in towns such as Blackpool have failed. New thinking and resources will be needed to achieve turnarounds. Another issue is understanding what kinds of schools serve disadvantaged pupils best. Schools with a mix of social backgrounds and abilities are the long-established preference of progressives. But the evidence from the IfG is complex: it finds examples both of disadvantaged pupils benefiting from socially mixed settings, and of them doing better in primary schools where they are clustered – perhaps because teachers there are more focused on their needs. Some London boroughs, meanwhile, are a law unto themselves, outperforming other areas by wide margins despite high levels of disadvantage (evidence suggests Birmingham and Manchester may be on similar trajectories). While the gap between boys' and girls' results shrank slightly this year, differences between ethnic groups are significant yet hard to summarise. When disadvantaged schools are compared, those with higher proportions of pupils with English as an additional language do better. Overall, the results give cause for reassurance about young people's resilience. But relief that some of the worst predictions about the pandemic have not come true must not obscure the fact that more than 40% of pupils missed the crucial grade 4 in maths and English. There are other problems with GCSEs, and exams and assessment in general. But too-rigid rules around resits, and the wider question of how to improve post-16 options, are the most pressing.
Wales Online
4 hours ago
- Wales Online
Cardiff releases GCSE grades as city schools beat Wales-wide results
Cardiff releases GCSE grades as city schools beat Wales-wide results More than one in four GCSE results in Cardiff schools were the top A*to A Twins Felipe and Jose Orbezo picked up their GCSE results from Mary Immaculate High in Cardiff achieving 17A*/A grades between them, as well seven Bs and three C grades. (Image: WalesOnline) Pupils at Cardiff schools have achieved better than Wales-wide GCSE results at the gold standard A*-C grades. Thousands of teenagers in the city picked up their results today with the council describing results as "outstanding" According to provisional WJEC GCSE results released today, 26.4% of Cardiff entries achieved A*–A grades, compared to the national figure of 19.5%. The proportion of entries awarded A*–C grades stands at 68%, again outperforming the Wales average of 62.5%, with 96.8% of Cardiff GCSEs graded A*–G. Follow live updates as pupils receive their grades here Compared to the last pre-pandemic year in 2019 results are also up. In 2020 and 2021 exams across Wales were cancelled and grades awarded on teachers assessment and in 2022 and 2023 they ran as usual but with extra help to account for lost learning. A return to "normal" pre-pandemic exam conditions resumed in 2024. You can read details of the all-Wales GCSE results here Cardiff GCSE results 2025 compared to 2019: A*-G grades 96.8% up from 96.3% in 2019 A*-C grades 68% up from 66.3% in 2019 A*-A are 26.4% from 23.1% in 2019 Results have also improved from 2024, which marked the final step in returning to pre-pandemic arrangements. A*-G grades 96.8% up from 96.1% in 2024 A*-C grades 68% up from 67.4% in 2024 A*-A are 26.4% up from 26.0% in 2024 Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter here Pupils also collected grades in the National/Foundation Skills Challenge Certificate (Welsh Baccalaureate) and the National/Foundation Welsh Baccalaureate today. Read more: First look at Cardiff's new multi million pound school campus Cllr Sarah Merry, Cardiff Council's deputy leader and cabinet member for education, said: 'I would like to warmly congratulate Cardiff's pupils who are receiving their GCSEs and all other qualification results today. "These achievements reflect their commitment, effort, and determination. 'It is particularly pleasing to see Cardiff's performance continue to improve, with A*–A GCSE grades well above the Welsh average and above our results for both 2019 and 2024. For those unsure about their next steps, Cardiff Council is offering help via its What's Next platform: Article continues below The city's GCSE results today follow better than Wales-wide A level results last week.
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Is there a 'resit crisis'? Key takeaways from 2025's GCSE results
More than 600,000 teenagers have been opening GCSE and other Level 2 results on have just finished Year 11, marking the end of a secondary school journey that began in Covid "bubbles" back in 2020. But a growing proportion of those opening results are older, having resat the English or maths GCSEs that they didn't pass the first time of those older students will have sat their initial GCSEs at a time when grades were being purposefully lowered to tackle grade inflation during the are the key things you need to know. 1. GCSE pass rate falls again The GCSE pass rate has fallen again – with 67.4% of all grades in England, Wales and Northern Ireland at 4/C and is slightly down from 67.6% last were always expected to be similar to last year, after years of flux because of the Covid were sharp rises in top grades in 2020 and 2021 when exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers' was followed by a phased effort to bring them back down to 2019 levels, and grading returned to pre-pandemic standards across all three nations last the overall pass rate fell this year, there are differences between the is the only nation to have seen a fall (from 67.4% to 67.1%). The pass rate has actually gone up in Wales (from 62.2% to 62.5%) and Northern Ireland (from 82.7% to 83.5%).The percentage of all top grades, marked at 7/A or above, rose very slightly from 21.8% to 21.9%. There have been warnings of fiercer competition for places at sixth form colleges this year. 2. Resit numbers are up Nearly a quarter of maths and English GCSEs were taken by people aged 17 and older this made up 23.4% of maths and English grades – compared to 20.9% last will be mature students sitting exams for the first time, but most will be young people resitting papers. Many of them will have taken their GCSEs the first time around when grades were being brought down after the pandemic, leading to fewer England, pupils who don't get at least a grade 4 in GCSE English and maths have to continue studying for it alongside their next course - their A-levels or their T-level, for Department for Education (DfE) says pupils should retake the exam when they think they are ready - although it has been described as a requirement in the pass rate for those who resit is far lower than it is for Year England, just 20.9% of English entries and 17.1% of maths entries from people aged 17 and over were marked at grade 4 or Duffy, the head of the OCR exam board, said there was a "resit crisis"."Tinkering at the edges of policy won't fix this," she said. "We need fundamental reform to maths and English secondary education... to support those who fall behind."The Association of School and College Leaders called the policy "demoralising", while the Association of Colleges said resits "can undermine confidence and motivation".They are all waiting for the DfE to publish its curriculum and assessment review this year, which is examining the policy. 3. Regional gap shrinks, but it's still higher than before Covid Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson warned on Wednesday that these GCSE results would "expose the inequalities that are entrenched in our education system".We only have limited data at the moment - a breakdown of exam results by things like ethnicity and free school meal status come later in the year - but we can look at regional last year, London had the highest pass rate (71.6%) and the West Midlands had the lowest (62.9%).It's the first time the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions has shrunk since 2021. It's 8.7 percentage points this year, down from 9.4 last the gap is still wider than it was at any point in the decade leading up to the pandemic, when it ranged between 6.4 and 7.2 percentage narrowing of the gap this year is not because the pass rate in the West Midlands has risen (it has actually dropped slightly), but rather because it fell more steeply in London than in any other region. 4. Gap between boys and girls is the lowest on record The gap between boys' and girls' pass rates across all three nations has narrowed to its lowest on continue to outperform boys, but their grades have dropped while boys' have risen means there's a difference of 6.1 percentage points this year, down from 6.7 last been looking over data that goes back all the way to 2000, and that gap is the lowest it's been at any point this was at its widest in 2017 (9.5 percentage points) and has been falling ever from the Education Policy Institute suggests that girls' performance has been "declining in absolute terms" since the Covid has linked this to "worrying trends around girls' wellbeing" such as worsening mental health and social media use. 5. Au revoir French... hola Spanish French has been a staple of British secondary education for years, but it's been overtaken by Spanish in popularity for the first time were 136,871 entries for Spanish GCSE this year, compared to 132,808 for Duffy, from the OCR, said it could be because Spanish was a "massive global language" and Spain was a popular holiday French teacher at a school in Scarborough agreed, telling the BBC that pupils associated Spanish with their favourite footballers, as well as "sunshine and holidays"."They say they are more likely to use it when they go away," she Association of School and College Leaders said it was "great to see" Spanish becoming so popular, but the decline in entries to French and German was a "source of concern". Additional reporting by Phil Leake, Libby Rogers, Muskeen Liddar and Daniel Wainwright
