Deansfield Community School wins accolade from Ofsted inspectors

A school where the number of pupils achieving good GCSE results has doubled in the last three years has been celebrating again.

Deansfield Community School in Wolverhampton received a report from Ofsted inspectors that rated it "good with outstanding features".

The accolade completed a remarkable change in fortunes for the 600-pupil school in Deans Road, East Park, which had two days' notice that the inspectors would call in, on October 5 and 6.

Three years ago barely 25 per cent of GCSE candidates achieved five or more passes including English and maths at grades A*-C.

Now the figure stands at 51 per cent.

Headteacher Dean Coombes who is proud of the turnaround, said: "I am delighted our good work has been recognised.

"The students and staff have been outstanding and I am very proud of all of them.

"The success came after the school raised its ambitions and woke up to what it could achieve.

"A change in the leadership may have helped to kick-start this but the hard work has been done by the staff and the pupils.

"Eighty per cent of lessons were graded as good or outstanding by the Ofsted inspection team.

"The students at this school are as bright and wonderful as any others in Wolverhampton and are now proving that point."

The inspectors praised the quality of teaching and the care given to all pupils.

Councillor Keith Inston, chairman of the school governors, praised the achievement and said: "Deansfield is a success story in our community."

Mr Coombes concluded: "Our intention is to move on from this. We want everything to be graded as outstanding and have a long way to go."

Construction work is due to begin later this academic year on a new building as part of Wolverhampton's Building Schools for the Future programme.

The £270m scheme will see the rebuilding or refurbishment of 25 secondary schools, with the work carried out by city-based contractor Carillion.

Work at all the schools is due to be finished by September 2014.