TEN under-achieving Sheffield secondary schools are to come under Government searchlights in a last-ditch drive to boost results.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has summoned city education directors and councillors to a meeting of authorities whose schools fall short of expected standards.
And Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already warned that those which fail to meet the requi
red target within five years will face drastic action.
The ten Sheffield schools are among 638 state secondaries nationwide which miss the mark. They will be the focus of the Whitehall summit next month which aims to explore ways of boosting performance.
The Government benchmark requires at least 30% of pupils to achieve five A*-C grades, including maths and English, at GCSE.
City schools which miss that target are Chaucer (18%), Hinde House (19%), Parkwood High (19%), Park Academy (19%), Springs Academy (20%), Firth Park (20%), Abbeydale Grange (21%), Yewlands (25%), City (28%) and Myers Grove (29%).
The city council refused to comment directly on the issue, admitting only that some Sheffield schools faced a tough challenge to ensure students reached their full potential.
"We are committed to working with these schools to help them achieve success in their GCSE results as well as in other achievements, and we're pleased at the progress we're making," said acting director of Children's Services Paul Makin.
"Last year, for example, we saw our best ever GCSE results across the city and Chaucer School has recently come out of an Ofsted category which is a strong vote of confidence in the progress we are making."
Next month's summit will put pressure on education authorities to come up with new ways of improving performance in struggling schools.
A pot of £200 million has been allocated to help achieve this.
The full article contains 301 words and appears in Sheffield Telegraph newspaper.
