Pledge made as Wolverhampton schools slammed

That was the pledge from the chief executive of the city council after a damning report showed fewer primary school children attend outstanding or good schools than anywhere else in the country.

Chief executive Simon Warren today stressed the future of school improvement lies with the schools themselves – but promised the city council would work closely with Ofsted to raise standards.

Politicians have called for urgent action following Ofsted's revelation that just 56 per cent of children attend a good or outstanding primary.

Wolverhampton trails behind the rest of the country, including its Black Country neighbours Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley.

The shock news has today prompted calls for urgent action from MPs.

In a statement, Mr Warren said the standards at a number of schools are unacceptable and schools "must and will improve".

He said parents would feel let down by the news- and rightly so. "We are working closely with under performing schools to deliver the required improvements," said Mr Warren. "We are clear about the council's responsibility, which is to challenge and intervene in schools that are under-performing and use the example set by our 12 outstanding and 58 good schools and nurseries to demonstrate how it can be done.

"The secretary of state Michael Gove has made it clear that local authorities retain some statutory functions and responsibilities but the future of school improvements is seen to lie with the schools themselves. We are working closely with Ofsted to raise standards in all our schools."

Mr Warren said the city council had changed its educational leadership over the summer and had just this week endorsed a new strategy for targeting schools at risk of failing.

He added: "We are focussing on challenging poor leadership and ineffective governing bodies and the quality of teaching. Let me reassure parents that anything less than a quality education for all children in the city is simply not good enough. We will take swift and decisive action to turn things around."

Figures for the number of children attending outstanding or good secondary schools in the city fares better, with a rate of 72 per cent. One school where children get a good education, according to its latest Ofsted result, is Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School in Bilston.

Its headteacher Carroll McNally said schools were working hard to provide children with a top-rate education. "We face some tremendously difficult barriers in Wolverhampton but every school is working extremely hard to provide each and every child with a first-class education," she said.

But today's announcement by Ofsted has sparked calls for urgent action.

Pat McFadden, MP for Wolverhampton South East, said the Ofsted findings should be a "wake-up call" to everyone involved with education in the city. "Education is the most powerful weapon for progress there is but when children don't get the education they deserve, opportunity is denied and life chances are lost," he said.

"While some schools in the city do well and the secondary results are a bit better, to have such a low proportion of children attending good or outstanding schools at primary level should be a rallying cry for change." The Labour politician said education was now the "most urgent challenge facing Wolverhampton". "It's no time for excuses or evasion," he said.

"Today's results also prompted calls for a "challenge to the status quo" from Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West Paul Uppal. He said: "These figures are disgraceful. They are appalling.

"I want pupils in Wolverhampton to expect a good education when they go to school here and feel they can excel in the city and not have to move away to Birmingham or further for opportunities."

Labour MP Emma Reynolds, for Wolverhampton North East, added: "These results are extremely disappointing. Every child in Wolverhampton deserves the very best education and life chances. They are clearly being let down which is totally unacceptable. There needs to be a massive and urgent step change in improvement in primary education across the city."

Leader of Wolverhampton City Council Roger Lawrence said: "I think our focus for improvement has been too much on secondary schools where it has been strong and recognised by people. There's clearly a lot of work to be done. The other point is that school performance is increasingly down to the school themselves, where we have responsibility for standards the opportunities for intervention are constrained. Nevertheless this is not good enough and the parents of children in primary school education will have some pretty serious questions and it's up to us and the schools to address them.

"It's clear it's not good and we're going to be doing all we can to get out of that position."

Leader of Wolverhampton City Council's opposition Conservative group Neville Patten said the figures were surprising.

"Rather than Ofsted grouping all schools together we should be looking at the individual schools that need help, looking at how they can improve and seeing how to address their working practices," he said. "The MPs who are describing this as 'disappointing' and 'a disgrace' need to get onto Michael Gove and get him to look at the education of the young people in Wolverhampton. They are the future and it cannot be ignored."