Our kids need to believe in themselves, says new Wolverhampton education chief

Having high expectations of themselves sounds like the moral of a class assembly but it is something Dr Jim McElligott sees as the biggest challenge facing the city.

He is the man recently appointed as director of education by the city council, although he has been working in an interim role since 2013.

His enthusiasm for Wolverhampton and his cheerful optimism would be infectious, were it not for the scale of the challenge that lies ahead.

In August, Wolverhampton was ranked eighth worst in the country for GCSE results, and following a wave of spot inspections Ofsted blasted Wolverhampton City Council for failing too many of the children.

For secondary schools, Wolverhampton is now 109th in the list, down from 91st in 2012/13. The numbers are the latest blow for the city's struggling school system.

Primary schools are ranked 141st out of 150 local authorities.

Yet this is an improvement.

As Dr McElligott puts it, 'we're out of relegation now'.

What is wrong with Wolverhampton then?

"The most important problem is low expectation," says Dr McElligott. "Either parents, the children themselves or sometimes people in the school don't think they can do it when they actually could.

"As a council we have got much more involved in supporting schools' improvement.

"And schools are responding positively."

So why were pupils in Wolverhampton not expecting as much as those elsewhere?

"We looked at some parts of the city and there were families of intergenerational unemployment," says Dr McElligott.

"There were families thinking 'what's the point' because a lot of the traditional industries had gone.

"But we have to encourage children to do new things. We're working with the construction industry on new University Technical College.

"It's another route for youngsters to consider taking.

"We have some fantastic new secondary schools thanks to the Building Schools for the Future programme."

The BSF project was a multi-million pound national programme to rebuild or refurbish secondary schools. It was scrapped in 2010 leaving many areas missing out but Wolverhampton's project was too advanced and was spared the axe.

The council is expanding its primary schools as well, to cope with soaring demand.

By September 10 will have either been refurbished or killed out with so called 'bulge classes'.

The council is also getting tough with schools that do not make the grade.

Five have been issued with warning notices since last July.

Three have had interim executive boards imposed – New Park School, Palmers Cross and now Dunstall Hill, whose governing body was ousted before Christmas.

"We need to change the governance, change the leadership and put in more robust accountability," Dr McElligott says. "We have to do this before it's too late.

"We devote a lot of energy to these schools.

"Many good or outstanding schools work with us to support those that need improvement."

New Park is now, in Dr McElligott's view, a success story.

Last year the school, in Cromer Gardens, Whitmore Reans, was given a bottom rung 'grade four' rating following a visit from the watchdog in February, with inspectors making a total of 16 recommendations for improvement.

They included reducing the amount of physical force used by staff on pupils and dramatically improving behaviour, after pupils were spotted damaging school property and smoking on site.

In the wake of the report, a new executive leadership took over the running of the school and an £80,000 fence was put up around its perimeter, while a police officer was stationed on site.

A more recent inspection has found pupil behaviour was 'largely calm and positive', with older pupils praised for their polite behaviour and demonstrating much improved attitudes to learning.

As for the rest of the city, the man in charge of education thinks it is time it stopped hiding its light under a bushel.

"The problem is getting people to believe we can do it," Dr McElligott says.

"You don't get this in places like Liverpool or Manchester. They're very proud of what they've done and what they can do.

"People here are far too modest. We need to encourage children to make the most of the tools their education gives them."