June news
Action plan for continuing to raise secondary school standards
Portsmouth City Council has confirmed plans to continue to raise secondary school standards, following the government's announcement today (June 10) of its National Challenge.
Councillor Eleanor Scott is Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Young People at the council. She said: "We welcome any proposals by the government to provide more resources to our city secondary schools.
"We already have a proven strong track record in Portsmouth of raising school standards. Last year, our pupils achieved their best ever GCSE exam results and the strength of our schools improvement strategy is recognised by the government.
"We have recently joined the government's 'Building Schools for the Future' programme and this will allow us to accelerate the improvement of standards in all our secondary schools.
"We are targeting resources to ensure that in every secondary school over 30% of all pupils will achieve Grade C or above in their GCSE results, including in English and Maths, by 2011.
"I am fully supportive of all the four schools and their leadership."
The proposal for Building Schools for the Future which are being considered by the city council on June 17, include changes to governance arrangements at secondary schools - including those schools highlighted by the government in its National Challenge.
The proposals include:
- all secondary schools supporting citywide collaboration to raise standards
- Mayfield Secondary School working in collaboration with a federation of schools to focus on English and Maths in particular
- St Luke's Secondary School to become an Academy
- King Richard and City of Portsmouth Boys' School to become Trust schools