09/09/11 - Chris Kelly MP: On the Crest of a Wave!

Dudley South MP Chris Kelly visited The Crestwood School in Kingswinford to help celebrate the outstanding success in this year’s GCSE results.

Head Teacher Maxine Suthons said: “This year’s results showed we had achieved over and above the target set by Ofsted. We had 54.2% 5 A* to C grades including English and Mathematics at GCSE - a 9% improvement on 2010. This result puts Crestwood in the top 25% of similar schools across the country."

Chris Kelly MP commented: “I would like to congratulate all the pupils at Crestwood School who sat their GCSEs this year and obtained such excellent results. I think no-one should underestimate the amount of hard work that goes into achieving these results and the pupils and teachers should be very proud. These results are a reflection of the hard work and dedication from students, teachers and parents.”

The Crestwood School has now gone from the bottom 9% of similar schools to the top 25% in just two years.

Mr Kelly sought to praise the dedication and enthusiasm of the students he met at the school, adding: “Recently there has been much reported about how young people are poorly behaved and disengaged with society. I think these results clearly demonstrate that there are a lot of young people in our borough who are very determined to carve out a bright future for themselves.”

Aside from touring the school and having a packed lunch in the dining hall with pupils, Mr Kelly also met and was quizzed by the School Ambassadors whose queries ranged from questions about tax, which committees he sits on in Parliament and - from School Ambassador Hannah Knowles - what had inspired him to become involved in politics?

Mr Kelly’s answer was the determination of Margaret Thatcher “to ignore the advice of officials and despatch a task force to recapture the Falkland Islands, a decision which", he added, "helped to restore Britain’s reputation across the global stage."