Conservative councillors in Wolverhampton have called for much more action to be taken to address academic standards and skills gaps in the city, after the latest school results showed decreases in key areas such as English and Maths.
In a report which has gone before the city council’s Children, Young People and Families Scrutiny Panel this week, education chiefs have outlined the latest results across all levels of the city’s education.
Whilst there has been some improvement, the report reveals that at Key Stages 4 and 5, Wolverhampton is slipping down the rankings.
The city ranked 133rd nationally in 2018 when it comes to the proportion of Key Stage 4 pupils achieving a strong pass in English and Maths, down from 128th in 2017. And the proportion of pupils achieving a standard pass in both English and Maths also decreased slightly from 2017 – down to 57.7% compared to 58%.
At Key Stage 5 (sixth form) level, just 9.6% of Wolverhampton pupils attained 3 or more A*- A or better at A level. This is down from 13.1% in 2017. The proportion of pupils achieving AAB or higher was
13.5%, compared to 16.2% nationally.
Conservative councillor Udey Singh, who is Vice-Chair of the Scrutiny Panel, said: “It is always sad to see our city’s academic performance decreasing, albeit slightly. This shows that there is a lot more work required by organisations and authorities to improve our children’s academic performance and their future career prospects.
“Although many of the city’s schools are now academies, Wolverhampton Council still has an important responsibility in ensuring we give our children the best chance in life. The skills gap remains a challenging issue to be addressed, so that we can all share in the benefits of the West Midlands region’s economic performance”
