SCHOOLS Minister Nick Gibb praised a "phenomenal" Bingley school during a visit today but said children and parents across the Bradford district deserved improvements in education.

Mr Gibb also said how the desire for faith schools should be respected and that a combination of religion and British values could lead to high achievement.

Mr Gibb was invited to Beckfoot School in Wagon Lane, Bingley, and Christ Church Primary Academy in Windhill, Shipley, by Shipley MP Philip Davies.

Beckfoot head teacher David Horn said its success was based on nurturing leadership, confidence and critical inquiry, shown by its recent win in a national debating competition.

Mr Gibb said Beckfoot's academic results were some of the best he had seen from a state sector school.

He then met a range of pupils for discussion about their school, education and politics before urging them that having reached the age of 55, his advice was: "The harder you work at this stage of your life, the better your life will be.

"Every hour you work will make your standard of living a notch higher."

Speaking before a private discussion on Bradford's well-documented education problems with Mr Davies, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, the Council's executive member for education, Bradford East MP Imran Hussain and other parties, Mr Gibb spoke how British pupils now had to compete on a global stage.

He said: "Beckfoot is an exemplary school. Its academic results are very strong and children get a very broad, academic and rigorous education - the best way to prepare a young person and instil a sense of ambition.

"I love the fact they have such a strong debating project.

"If we want our young people to compete in a global market their maths needs to be as good as children in Shanghai, where children are three years ahead of us, and their reading needs to be as good as children in Finland."

Asked about Bradford's low rankings in national academic league tables and what could be done to help he said: "That's what we're here to talk about today.

"Philip Davies is obviously very concerned, as is Imran Hussain, who have both been to see me separately about education standards in Bradford.

"That's one of the reasons I'm here today, with the education authority to talk about what can be done to improve academic standards.

"Parents and children are ambitious, what lets them down is when the schools or local authorities are simply not delivering quality education."

"We have a fantastic example here in Beckfoot where children are happy, well behaved and achieving phenomenal results."

Before visiting CE faith school Christ Church, Mr Gibb, said faith schools were to be supported.

"Across the country they do perform better than the national average.

"It is something about the very high standards of behaviour leading to very high academic standards.

"Parents have a right to bring up their children according to their own faith and that shouldn't be the preserve of wealthy people. If somebody want to send their child to a state faith school they should be able to do so, be that a Catholic, Church of England, Jewish or Muslim school.

"That doesn't mean to say we'd support a school that becomes introspective - it's important they adhere to British values and our inspection system takes a very strong approach to those that do not."

After his visit to Christ Church Academy, Mr Gibb said: "It was a pleasure to meet the teachers and see examples of the pupils’ work.

"It was a happy school with a real focus on the pastoral care of its pupils.”