Shropshire exam results for disadvantaged children 'appallingly low', says school watchdog

Lorna Fitzjohn, Ofsted regional inspector for the West Midlands, said Shropshire is one of the worst performing local authorities in the country when it comes to exam results for disadvantaged children.

She said that disadvantaged children in Birmingham are far more likely to gain five GCSEs at A* to C grade, including English and maths, than their Shropshire counterparts.

Mrs Fitzjohn said: "Only one in four of those children get five GCSEs, with English and maths, that is appallingly low."

But headteachers and one of the county's MPs today said schools in Shropshire did not have sufficient resources due to its low amount of funding from the Government.

Geoff Pettengell, executive principal of Shrewsbury Academies Trust, said the county had fewer resources than major cities such as Birmingham to tackle such issues.

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski said Mrs Fitzjohn's comments were further evidence of the need to redress the funding imbalance.

'Disadvantaged children' is the term Government uses to refer to pupils who are in receipt of the pupil premium – an amount of extra funding given to schools to support the education of children who receive free school meals, or have done at some point in the previous six years.

Free school meals are provided to pupils if their family is in receipt of low income or benefits. The pupil premium was £935 for 2015/16.

Mr Pettengell said schools with more disadvantaged children, such as those in Birmingham, would attract more funding and would be able to use that to have a larger impact on the education of pupils.

He said: "It is low and that is not acceptable but in most of those rural Shropshire schools the number of disadvantaged pupils are relatively few and the schools receive relatively little funding as compared to schools in Birmingham where the number of disadvantaged pupils will be considerably higher – about 50 per cent of the school – and the school will receive a higher proportion of funding to tackle that. That percentage might only be two, three or four per cent in a rural Shropshire school."

Mr Kawczynski, who has been part of a long-running campaign for more funding for rural schools, said: "There are big differences and this has been the case for generations. That is why a child in Birmingham can receive between £6,000, and £8,000 of funding whereas in Shropshire that figure is around £4,000.

"That difference results in not the same standards of equipment, and activities and not the same level of investment in SEN and other issues of deprivation."

No-one from Shropshire Council was available to comment on the figures.