Simon Warren, Chief Executive of Wolverhampton City Council, brands under performing primary schools "unacceptable".
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The Ofsted report has placed Wolverhampton at the bottom of a league table indicating the percentage of primary schools which have been judged by Ofsted to be rated 'good' or better.
Ofsted gives schools a rating after each inspection of either 'outstanding', 'good', 'requires improvement' or 'inadequate'.
Just 56% of the city's primary aged pupils are in schools which are judged to be performing 'good' or better which is the lowest percentage in the country.
In better news, the percentage of the city's secondary aged pupils which are in schools judged to be 'good' or better is much higher at 72%.
Reacting to the news, Simon Warren, the council's Chief Executive, has issued the following statement: "The standards at a number of primary schools are unacceptable. These schools must and will improve. Parents will feel let down by these schools and rightly so.
"We are working closely with underperforming schools to deliver the required improvements. We are clear about the council's responsibility which is to challenge and intervene in schools that are underperforming and use the example set by our 12 outstanding and 58 good schools and nurseries to demonstrate how it can be done.
"The Secretary of State has made it clear that local authorities retain some statutory functions and responsibilities, but the future of school improvement is seen to lie with the schools themselves.
"We are working closely with Ofsted to raise standards in all our schools.
"The council has fundamentally changed its educational leadership this summer and has this week endorsed a new way of targeting support and challenge to those schools most at risk of failing. We are focused on challenging poor leadership, ineffective governing bodies and the quality of teaching.
"Let me reassure parents that anything less than a quality education for all children in the city is simply not good enough. We will take swift and decisive action to turn things around."
- released: Wednesday 11 December, 2013