Historic first for Sandwell's secondary schools

Thirty five per cent or more of pupils at the borough's 17 secondary schools notched up five or more good GCSE grades in 2011.

This is the tough new level set by the Government - any school which falls below this target is judged to be under-performing.

It is the first time every school in Sandwell has passed the milestone. The figure includes local authority schools and academies.

Sandwell's education boss Councillor Bob Badham hailed the result as "encouraging" - but added there was still a lot more work to do.

He said: "This is good news for Sandwell and a big step forward in our drive for excellence.

"It is a tribute to the hard work of pupils, teachers, governors, parents and local authority staff.

"We have improved our GCSE results every year for the last 10 years and are among the most improved local authority in the country. These are firm foundations for success.

"But we can't stand still - when we look at the young people getting five good GCSEs, Sandwell rose 55 places in the rankings from 99th to 44th and we want to keep going.

"There is still a long way to go to ensure every pupil achieves their full potential but we are on the right road."

Councillor Badham, cabinet member for children and families, said record GCSE results had been achieved despite thousands of pupils still being taught in shoddy, crumbling buildings with little hope of improvements after Education Secretary Michael Gove rejected the borough's £125 million Building Schools for the Future programme.

Last month the borough's primary school pupils achieved some of the country's most improved results for maths and English.

Sandwell is the fourth most improved area nationally for 11-year-olds reaching the expected level in Key Stage 2.