Failing schools no longer tolerated (From Worcester News)

Failing schools no longer tolerated

12:05pm Wednesday 31st October 2007 in News By Sally Jones

FAILING schools in Worcestershire could be taken over or ultimately closed down, the Prime Minister has warned today.

In his first major speech on education since taking office, Gordon Brown declared: "We can no longer tolerate failure."

According to Ofsted's latest figures there are four schools in Worcestershire that are currently in Special Measures and a further six have been given notice to improve.

Those in special measures are Elgar Technology College in Worcester, Gorse Hill Community Primary School in Worcester, St Barnabas CofE First and Middle School in Drakes Broughton and Dingleside Middle School in Redditch.

Mr Brown pointed to statistics showing there are still 670 schools in the country where fewer than 30% of pupils get five A* to C grades at GCSE.

Speaking at the University of Greenwich in London, he said: "It is time to say not just that we will aim high, but that we can no longer tolerate failure, that no longer will it be acceptable for any child to fall behind.

"No longer acceptable for any school to fail its pupils, no longer acceptable for young people to drop out of education without good qualifications without us acting."

Those failing schools would be given annual improvement targets, teachers would be given new incentives to teach in the toughest schools and good schools would be brought in to help their failing neighbours.

New executive boards could take over school management and ultimately, said Mr Brown, there could be "complete closure or takeover by a successful neighbouring school in a trust or federation, or transfer to academy status, including the option of takeover by an independent school".