School's revamp may give way to exams bid

The multi-million-pound revamp of a secondary school in Wolverhampton looks set to be postponed as teachers want more time to improve students' exam results.

Deansfield High's overhaul as part of the city's £370 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme was due to start in May 2011. But governors have asked for the start date to be deferred as staff want to focus on improving exam results.

The Deans Road school is currently ranked 16th out of the city's 21 secondary schools for its GCSE marks and 20th for A-levels.

If the plan is approved by council bosses, the makeover of Deansfield will move from phase one of the BSF programme to phase two – due to start in August 2011.

The move would see Deansfield switch places with Coppice Performing Arts College and Wednesfield High, meaning their revamps would be brought forward by months.

City education boss and Deansfield governor Councillor Gillian Fellows described the proposal as good common sense.

"The headteacher and staff want to concentrate on raising attainment levels and once they have done that, they will be in a better position to spend more time on BSF," she said.

A total of 31 per cent of students at Deansfield get five or more A*-C GCSEs, including English and maths, and the average A-level points score per pupil is 428.6.

The decision on whether it can move to phase two of the BSF scheme will be made by the local authority's cabinet.

Council chief children's services officer Tim Westwood said today: "We believe this is a very wise and appropriate request.

"In order to accommodate this request, it is proposed that we bring Coppice Performing Arts College and Wednesfield High into an earlier phase of the scheme."

Headteacher Dean Coombes said: "Last year was incredibly successful for Deans- field. A six-month delay in the BSF process suits our long term plans to make Deansfield the community school our families deserve."