How can schools be getting worse?

The latest review comes mid-way through Education Bradford's £360 million ten-year contract to dramatically improve educational standards.

But the report shows primary school pupils' achievements have fallen across the board at Foundation and Key Stage One levels for the past three years - a situation described as a "missed opportunity" in the Bradford Council report.

By contrast the review for the 2005/6 academic year shows secondary education in a more positive light, with students achieving the district's best-ever GCSE results this summer.

Councillor Philip Thornton, chairman of the Young People and Education Improvement Committee which will consider the report next week, said he was "clearly disappointed" by the results for primary schools.

He said: "Improvements are not coming quickly enough for us. I want to see the gap narrowing much faster.

"We expected a great deal more out of this contract - we are paying a lot of money for it and we want better results."

Coun Thornton (Lab, Windhill and Wrose) blamed much of the problem on the poor educational standards of many children when they start school.

He said: "Young people are coming into school with tremendous difficulties and these have got to be bottomed before they can embark on their educational development.

"While it is clear from Key Stage 2 and beyond that things are starting to improve the early stage is a different matter.

"Standards are down for the last three years but a tremendous amount of effort is going on in this area and it is having some impact.

"Education Bradford has not only recognised that this is a problem but has set out what it is going to do about it," he said. "I am hopeful that it will work."

He praised measures included in the report which would boost standards - such as in teaching, learning, leadership and management - but he said councillors at the meeting on Wednesday would have to scrutinise Education Bradford's action plan.

"If we think they are not far-reaching enough we will be demanding changes," he said.

John Gaskin, managing director of Education Bradford, said it had compiled an "honest" record of pupils' achievements.

He said: "It shows that we are grasping the nettle and that we are not trying to gloss over the issues.

"We have narrowed the gap in most measures since 2001 which shows that our improvement rate in Bradford is faster than the national rate.

"We also acknowledge that we have to improve even faster which is an ambition shared with schools and the Council.

"We have identified the need to focus on the progress of individual children and the needs of individual schools.

"We are all in this together - Education Bradford, schools, the Council, governors and parents. We have to face up to the issues and do the right things.

"We have many schools producing excellent results, often in difficult circumstances, and the challenge for all of us is to raise all to the level of the best."

Mr Gaskin said that the way Foundation and Key Stage One levels were assessed had changed in the last few years - ending in more accurate, if lower - results.

He said: "My belief is that there is actually no reason why our results in Bradford should not be at the national average.

"To make that happen we have got to pay attention to what is happening to children all the way through their time at primary and secondary school."

In the report, Michelle Carroll, the Council's contract manager (education), says: "This year's results show that standards of attainment at Key Stage 4 have risen but all other key stages, in comparison to the national statistics, are at best static. This is a missed opportunity for Bradford to close the gap even further."

Gloria Gott, head teacher of St John's Primary School, Bierley, and a representative on the Education Policy Partnership, said it was too easy to blame pupils' language difficulties on low achievement in early-years education.

She said: "I think the new National Curriculum strategies will help in this.

"High attainment is down to high expectation. If you aim for the stars you might reach the roof - but if you aim for the roof you might only get to the windowsill."

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Across the district there are 17 primary schools causing concern.

Within the high support programme, 13 of these have agreed they do not have the internal capacity to address the areas of challenge.

There are also four schools identified as requiring special measures or given a notice to improve by Ofsted.

Two of these are in special measures and two are subject to a notice to improve. Usher Street Primary, off Wakefield Road, has been in an Ofsted category for the longest period in the country.

There are also 60 primary schools below the floor target in either or both English and mathematics. This is an increase compared to 2005.

Education Bradford supported 19 schools in the last academic year and 14 in the previous year in programmes including literacy, numeracy and science.

Results show a 1.2 per cent improvement for literacy, 1.8 per cent for numeracy and in science there was a 1.1 and 2 per cent increase over two different levels.

There are fewer schools below 50 per cent at Level 4 or more in English.

An assessment of the support and challenges affecting these schools has identified areas for further improvement.

A major issue concerns some schools dropping back when the support is removed - indicating not all are able to sustain the improvements.

Foundation Stage (age three to five)

Scores have fallen year-on-year over the past three years. Communication, language and literacy has been the weakest section every year. Bradford's scores are just below the national average.

Girls have consistently achieved higher scores in all areas over the same period. A weak performance from boys in all communication, language and literacy testing this year is of "particular concern".

Data related to performance by group suggests that "the tail of underachievement begins at the foundation stage". The results of Bangladeshi pupils are weaker than other groups - in particular in communication, language and literacy areas and calculation.

Although Pakistani students achieve higher scores than this, the results follow the same pattern.

Key Stage One (age five to seven)

Standards have fallen in all subjects at all levels over the past three years.

They are lower in writing than in reading or mathematics at all levels.

The gap between Bradford's results and those on a national level is more evident at the higher levels across all subjects. Boys' and girls' results fell in all subjects in 2006 - bar one. Although black pupils outperform other groups at one level and do better than the Bradford average in reading and mathematics, no group is in line with the national averages at any level in any subject.

Bangladeshi and Pakistani pupils attain lower standards than black pupils and white boys in all subjects and the performance gap becomes more marked at the higher levels.

Key Stage Two (age seven to 11)

The number of students who attained Level 4 or higher in English and mathematics is on a par with last year.

Science has dipped by one per cent. Meanwhile the gap between Bradford's results and national ones remains the same in mathematics, has worsened slightly in English and has in-creased slightly in science.

More schools failed to meet the agreed Education Development Plan target in mathematics (104 schools) than in English (80 schools).

Compared with last year, the performance of Bangladeshi and black pupils is improving more rapidly than other groups. But the levels achieved by white boys is declining in all areas apart from writing where there is modest improvement.

There are marked differences in the progress of higher and lower attaining boys and girls in all subjects.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

There are seven schools in need of high support from the original nine identified by a School Improvement Project run by the Department for Education and Skills and Education Bradford.

All seven have made progress in GCSE attainment at five or more A* to C grades this year.

Key Stage 3 (age 11 to 14)

The percentage of Bradford students at this stage achieving Level 5 or above in English fell by one per cent; nationally the fall was two per cent.

For Level 6 or more, Bradford bucked the national trend and increase by two per cent.

These results rank Bradford 132 (up six places) and 122 (up 16 places) respectively.

But over the last three years Level 5 plus has remained static against a one per cent rise nationally.

In mathematics, Bradford's improvement of three per cent at the lower level matches the national improvement.

At the higher level an increase of five per cent exceeded the national rise of four.

These results rank Bradford 131 (down five places) and 127 (same) respectively.

Over three years the difference from the national results has remained the same.

Bradford's two per cent improvement in science at the lower level matched the national improvement.

Those obtaining Level 6 or higher saw a two per cent improvement - less than the national figure of four per cent.

The district was ranked 131 (up one place) and 124 (down six places) respectively.

In the last three years the gap to the national average is being closed.

Based on previous overall rankings, Bradford is likely to be in 135th place this year, down from 133 last year and 132 in 2004.

This is out of 148 authorities across the country.

Key Stage 4 (age 14 to 16)

The proportion of students achieving five of more GCSEs at grades A* to C rose by three per cent in 2006 to 49.4 per cent.

In the last three years the district's results have improved by ten points which ranks the authority in the top quartile for improvement compared to others.

The percentage of pupils gaining five GCSEs at those grades, including mathematics and English, is 33.9 - an increase of 1.5 on 2005.

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