A hard-hitting action plan to drive up education standards is set to be adopted by Bradford Council.

Education chiefs have been battling for years to improve attainment at the district’s schools.

Despite improvements, especially to Ofsted inspection scores, this year Bradford’s primary schools recorded the third worst key stage two SATs results in England, while average GCSE and A-level results remain in the lowest 20 per cent nationally.

A Council committee spent almost a year examining the district’s education system and interviewing teachers, parents and school governors about how the system might be improved.

In October it unveiled a multi-point action plan which it believed would help tackle underachievement.

Its recommendations included making it easier to challenge or dismiss sub-standard teachers, clamping down on authorised term-time absences and getting the Council to consider setting up its own ‘agency service’ of high-quality supply teachers.

The children’s overview and scrutiny committee also recommends that primary schools organise English lessons for parents who do not speak the language. Its report said a similar scheme operated in Denmark, aimed at recent immigrants with young children.

Now the Council’s decision-making Executive looks set to adopt nearly all the committee’s recommendations, but a senior officer is asking them to consider re-wording the recommendation for English language lessons for parents.

Kath Tunstall, strategic director of children’s services, said in a report to the Executive: “The report highlights the need to work with parents with regard to English speaking, but it is important to acknowledge that there is no direct link between the home language and a child’s language ability.

“Many children in Bradford benefit from speaking, and reading, a number of languages and schools should be encouraged to build on the rich range of languages encountered by children in other settings.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, executive member for children’s services, said many schools were already offering English language lessons to parents, and it was an idea the authority supported. He said he believed the concern was not over the concept, but over the recommendation’s “body language, being in slightly lecturing mode”.

Coun Berry said the report overall was very useful.

He said: “I think it’s a good, thoughtful piece of work.”