Bradford schools inspected under a new education inspection framework have outperformed schools nationally, according to fresh data.

Criteria used by watchdog Ofsted to assess the performance of the country’s schools changed for the start of the academic year last September.

Since then, 16 per cent of Bradford schools inspected have been judged outstanding, compared to 11 per cent nationally.

Two per cent have been put in the failing Special Measures category, half the national figure. In total, seven Bradford schools have been graded outstanding, 16 good, 17 satisfactory and three inadequate, since the start of the school year.

Two struggling schools have been issued with a Notice to Improve and one is in Special Measures.

Lesley Hart, director of school improvement for Education Bradford, the private firm on a ten-year contract to provide support services to the district’s schools, said a lot of groundwork had been put in to ensure schools were ready for inspection changes.

She said: “We acknowledged there was going to be a change in the Ofsted framework so we were very clear with schools about what they would be. We did a lot of work telling governors what the changes meant so they were confident about what they needed to do in schools. Another thing is that over the last couple of years we have been very clear with schools about their strengths and weaknesses, so we were clear where we could dedicate our resources to develop those weaker areas.”

She said schools across the city had coped well with a period of changes to senior leaders: “Over the last few years a lot of senior leaders have reached the ends of their careers and there has been a lot of change. We have a lot of new blood in the system who are really making a difference in our schools. We’ve also got some very experienced heads who have really demonstrated how they have moved their schools forward.”

She highlighted the performance of St John’s CE Primary, judged outstanding by Ofsted for a fourth consecutive report and the fact Naila Zaffar, head of Copthorne Primary, was made a Dame in the Queen’s birthday honours list.

Explaining the inspection changes, she said: “There has been two things significantly different. One of those is an emphasis on safeguarding of students and nationally a number of schools have come a cropper but that wasn’t a big issue for Bradford.

“And, there’s a real emphasis on attainment, not just progress made. Bradford’s attainment is behind the national average but our heads have been able to make a strong case for the progress children make and have managed to convince inspectors they are doing a good job.”