Two Wolverhampton schools which were previously judged to be inadequate by Ofsted have come out of Special Measures after making good improvements in recent months.

They include St Alban's CofE Primary School in Ashmore Park, which reopened to pupils this week following an arson attack earlier this month, and Villiers Primary School in Bilston.

Schools are placed into Special Measures by Ofsted when it considers they fail to supply an acceptable level of education and appear to lack the leadership capacity to improve.

St Alban's CofE was placed in Special Measures in 2013 because of low levels of pupil achievement and concerns about the quality of teaching. However, a visit by Ofsted earlier this month concluded that the pupils are now doing far better thanks to higher quality teaching. The school's leadership under new Executive Headteacher Helen Morris was also judged to be good.

Inspectors placed Villiers Primary School into Special Measures last year, citing poor teaching and leadership which led to low levels of achievement for children.

An inspection in January however found that the senior leadership had strengthened considerably, teaching standards had improved and Early Years provision was now good. Inspectors also recognised the effectiveness of the support, challenge and advice provided by Wolverhampton City Council.

Councillor Phil Page, Wolverhampton City Council's Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Learning, said: "This is good news for pupils at Villiers and St Alban's whose learning experience is being enhanced by the improvements taking place at their respective schools.

"The council's School Improvement Team has worked very closely with the 2 schools to support them to make rapid progress, and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to improving the standard of education in Wolverhampton.

"I'm pleased that the hard work and determination of governors, staff and all members of the school community, together with effective support and challenge from the council, has brought about these improvements without the need for Villiers or St Alban's to become academies, which is usually the case when schools are placed into Special Measures.

"We will continue to work closely with Villiers and St Alban's primary schools to ensure they carry on improving, and I'm confident that Ofsted will see further progress when it next inspects these schools."

  • released: Thursday 26 February, 2015