Secondary school league tables: Sandwell slumps to bottom of the pile
Sandwell has slumped to the bottom of the pile in the Black Country in the GCSE performance tables, according to figures out today.
Last year a total of 46.9 per cent of pupils gained the Government's benchmark of five or more GCSEs at A* to C, including English and maths. The Department for Education (DfE) figures show the performance of Sandwell's schools has dropped by 3.8 per cent over the last year in terms of GCSE results.
It means Sandwell has fallen behind both Walsall and Wolverhampton in slipping to 145th out of 152 local authorities in the country.
Last year 50.7 per cent of pupils gained the benchmark grades.
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Sandwell came in 124th position for A-level results, an improvement of three places on last year.
Last month education chiefs in the borough announced they were setting up crunch talks with headteachers in a bid to combat the failings of Sandwell's secondary schools. It comes after Ofsted's annual report said Sandwell is the worst performing area of the Black Country for pupils attending good or outstanding secondary schools.
Seven out of every 10 secondary school pupils in Sandwell now attend academies, which are free from local authority control.
Council bosses say the situation is partly down to a lack of Government support for struggling academies.
Councillor Simon Hackett, cabinet member for children's services, has said the authority had challenged secondary schools to make improvements.
The George Salter Academy in West Bromwich and the Q3 Academy in Great Barr were the two best performing schools in the borough, both seeing 60 per cent of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs at A* to C, including English and maths.
The Ace Academy in Tipton saw just 34 per cent of pupils achieve the benchmark grades, while at The Phoenix Collegiate School in West Bromwich the figure was 40 per cent.
Elsewhere in the Black Country Dudley was top of the pile for GCSE results, with 53 per cent of pupils gaining five or more GCSEs at A* to C. The borough came 117th in the country.
Wolverhampton was 127th on 51.6 per cent and Walsall came 129th on 50.8 per cent.
