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Wolverhampton schools' boss quizzed over poor results

Wolverhampton's schools' chief will be questioned over why the city's GCSE results are among the worst in the country.

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Councillor Wendy Thompson, leader of the Conservative opposition at Wolverhampton City Council, will ask councillor Phil Page what he believes are the reasons behind the city's poor performance at a meeting of the authority tomorrow.

The number of teenagers in the city achieving the Government's target for GCSE results has plummeted by more than 15 per cent this year.

Fewer than 46 per cent of youngsters in the city gained five or more good GCSE grades, including English and maths.

The shocking results mean Wolverhampton is now the eighth worst area in the country in terms of pupils achieving the benchmark standard, while the 15.1 per cent fall represents the biggest drop of any English authority.

Councillor Thompson said: "I intend to find out a little more about their thinking of why we seem to be so down with these results.

"If they have an understanding of why this has happened maybe that can give a better indication of what can be done to try and resolve what is a very serious issue.

"There are other places that are similar to Wolverhampton that do not seem to have done as badly as we have.

"This is an important issue that we are not prepared to ignore."

Wolverhampton's results were the worst of all the Black Country authorities – just 12 months after the city finished top of the pile in the region.

In Dudley, the figure was 52.7 per cent, with Sandwell at 49.8 per cent and Walsall 48.3 per cent. Staffordshire's schools posted a figure of 54.4 per cent, while the average across the West Midlands was 54.2 per cent.

The city council said that the results need to be updated and did not include figures from what is traditionally one of its most successful secondary schools. Council bosses believe once the final results are released it could boost its overall performance by four per cent.

Nationally, 52.6 per cent of students gained five A* to C grades, including the key subjects of English and maths, a 6.6 per cent fall from last year which School's Minister Nick Gibb says is proof that the exam system is more demanding.

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