Headmaster's vow to get Dormston School out of special measures

Dormston School, in Mill Bank, Sedgley, was judged as 'inadequate' by Ofsted and placed in special measures after an inspection in July 2013.

Ben Stitchman was appointed as the new headmaster last September and says he is determined to drive up standards.

Mr Stitchman said: "We want to get out as fast as we can and we are aiming to do it in one academic year. I think we are on track to go from special measures to be classed as a good school in one year, which would be ground breaking."

The school was criticised for failing to ensure students make enough progress. Standards were also said to be 'too low' in English and mathematics.

The educational establishment has since received two monitoring visits, the first in October and the second in February, both of which were 'positive'.

Mr Stitchman has set a target to pull the secondary school out of special measures by the next Ofsted inspection due at the start of the next academic year. If this is achieved it would be in just over half the time allowed, with schools placed in special measure given two years to improve.

Mr Stitchman admits the school, which has 1,500 pupils aged 11 to 16, did have problems and said: "There was a lack of expectation, but now our improvement is about raising expectations and pushing the students harder to achieve their potential.

"We have a terrific year 11 and the staff are putting a lot of energy into them. We are hoping for our best ever GCSE results this summer.

"We have got so much more that we want to do. We don't simply want to get out of special measures; we want to be the best. This is just the start of a promising future for our students. I am focusing on raising everyone's expectations. There is no reason why our students won't go on to do exactly what they want to do."