Setting record straight on schools

May I lend my support to those Wolverhampton schools who have been named as "failing" and set the record straight on the benchmark used in the recent government pronouncements.

No Wolverhampton secondary schools have less than 30 per cent achieving five good A*-C GCSEs and the average across the city achieving this measure is in fact 60 per cent, making our schools the 20th most improved since 1997.

This measure has been the one most favoured by government and employers for many years, and through the hard work of teachers and pupils, as well as our Beacon Status 14-19 partnership, this has been a major success story in Wolverhampton, which has in turn led to more young people staying on at school post-16 and obtaining places at university.

The measure to which Ed Balls referred and which may have been confusing, was those achieving five A* to C at GSCE including English and maths.

This new measure in fact only becomes statutory this year and our schools, which have been preparing for the change of emphasis for the past two years, are generally confident of passing this "harder test". The young people receiving their GCSE results this August will be the first to benefit from this change, and results will be published, as usual, for all to judge.

Those wanting to consider how well a particular school is doing should also take a good look at the contextual value added results which make allowance for how much progress young people make from age 11 and the Ofsted reports which look at a wider range of issues and for Wolverhampton secondary schools paint a very positive picture with none now judged to be failing or under notice to improve.

It must be very galling for all those working in schools to have this constant drip of negative and misleading information. So, as someone who has worked closely with Wolverhampton schools for a number of years, I am pleased to say well done to all our schools and keep up the good work.

Christine Irvine, Mill Lane, Wednesfield.