Teaching unions today welcomed measures to improve forecasts of school rolls by Bradford education chiefs and said it was vitally important to every school that the predictions should be realistic.

Officials said inaccuracies had created serious difficulties in the school re-organisation programme and had left some schools with serious financial problems.

And they stressed the necessity for politicians and statisticians to look not just at figures but listen to families and teachers with local knowledge.

Ian Davey secretary of the Bradford branch of the NASUWT said: "If you get this wrong a whole group of schools can be totally out of key.

"We have a situation in Holme Wood where St John's is fine but other schools are in dire straits."

Miranda Vasey, who led the campaign to save Hoyle Court School, Baildon, and strongly challenged pupil roll figures said: "I wouldn't want any school to go through what Hoyle Court went through before the proposal was set aside. The argument was based on figures, no-one had even visited the school and there had been no research."

But Councillor David Ward, the Council's executive member for education, said the figures for Hoyle Court were right and there was still a surplus of places in Baildon.

"Other problems with surplus places go back to the planning for the schools' reorganisation four years ago. The numbers of children for new housing estates was grossly over-estimated."

The Council's executive committee will examine a detailed 41-point action plan responding to school watchdog Ofsted's latest criticisms for the first time on Tuesday.

But they will be asked to approve it retrospectively as it had to be submitted to the Department for Education and Skills by May 13.

Copies will now be sent to local organisations, the Audit Commission and the Education Secretary Charles Clarke

The 86-page document addresses each recommendation in the inspection report with an individual action plan.

It has rigorous objectives and targets and will be monitored by directors, managers or teams.

Ofsted inspectors praised the expertise of staff in services to support school improvement, the leadership of Education Bradford, support for numeracy and support for travellers.

But the action plan focuses on the 16 areas which were found to be unsatisfactory and poor, including policies to combat racism, planning for special educational needs and ensuring value for money, planning for school places and assuring the quality and supply of teachers.

The Council's Labour spokesman for education, Councillor Ralph Berry, said: "The document contains all the right words and objectives and worthy aspirations but we still have serious concerns about secondary school performance.

"I would love this to succeed but are we getting sufficient improvements for secondary schools to re-assure parents?"

Conservative education spokesman, Councillor Dale Smith, welcomed the inclusion of community involvement in the plan, which will be implemented over the next 18 months.

Key projects include reviewing the school funding formula to reflects the needs of schools, particularly in support of special educational needs, and allowing schools to evaluate themselves.

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