Statement from Jo Higgins, Chief Executive of Dudley Academies Trust.

“I am delighted with the progress shown in these encouraging and rewarding results and delighted for our learners.

Their results are not only a massive improvement on last year, but a clear indication that standards of Teaching & Learning in our academies have leapt forward. It is also great news for our staff and I want to send a big ‘thank you’ to all of them.

Our learners have made improved progress in real terms, and I am confident that we will see improved results again next year. We can say to parents that if their children come to one of our academies, they will have every opportunity to excel.”

Jo is adamant that the Trust’s academies have made undeniable progress. “There has been much talk about grade inflation this year. The Trust has a proven model for predicting GCSE grades which enables us to be certain about the overall accuracy of our results. I was delighted to see that our teacher-assessed grades have been significantly raised by the examination boards. This is proof of the robust and realistic approach that we took to assessing our learners. All of the grades our learners achieved are the grades they deserved and the improvements shown by our academies are all real improvements.

If schools league tables were being published for 2020, I am sure that our academies would have moved up significantly.”