Birmingham pupils shine as GCSE results improve across region
“It has been achieved by ensuring the school targets the right children and accelerates their progress, and deal with issues as they arise.
“As a National Challenge school there is a certain amount of pressure, but the real pressure is, that in this recession, we ensure that our children are fairly articulate in and language and be competent in numbers.”
Elsewhere, for the fourth year in succession, more than half of Solihull’s 16-year-olds achieved five or more top A* to C grades in their exams, including the core subjects of English and maths.
The Key Stage 4 tables, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, showed 54.4 per cent of pupils achieved the crucial target, although that figure was marginally down on the 2008 figure of 54.6 per cent.
But when maths and English were taken out of the equation, Solihull’s pupils continued to improve.
Today’s national performance table showed 77.7 per cent of students achieved five or more grade A* to Cs, an increase of more than five per cent on the previous year’s 73.7 per cent.
The results also showed that most youngsters in Solihull made good progress between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4, achieving at least the level expected nationally.
Solihull Council’s deputy leader, Coun Bob Sleigh, said: "It gives me great pleasure to see that, yet again, Solihull’s students have reaped the rewards of all their hard work with these excellent results.
"Well done to all of them, and also to their parents and teachers for their continued support."
On the other side of the region, Staffordshire school pupils also had good reason to celebrate after once again showing an improved performance in their GCSE results.
The number of pupils across the county achieving five overall passes at the top A*-C grades increased from 64.9 per cent to an impressive 69.7 per cent.
And when the key subjects of English and maths were included, Staffordshire saw its five or more pass rate at A* to C rise from 49.6 per cent to 50.7 per cent.
The county council’s deputy leader and lead Cabinet member for children and young people, Coun Ian Parry, said: "We are pleased pupils in Staffordshire schools have achieved good results in the 2009 GCSE tests, and it is also good to see year-on-year improvement. We thank all our schools for their hard work and we will continue to support them."
Worcestershire’s head of education also had reason to rejoice.
Coun Liz Eyre, the county council’s Cabinet member for children and young people, said: "It’s great to see that Worcestershire’s schoolchildren continue to improve standards of attainment within the county."
* To see the performance tables for each city or county in a downloadable XL table, click on the following links:
