COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

It says a parent in Coventry has only a 42% chance of sending their child to a good or outstanding state primary compared to a 92% chance for a parent living in the London borough of Camden and 91% in Barnet.

"There are differences between local authorities with similar demographics," Sir Michael told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We'll be looking very carefully at what's happening in those local authorities with the same sort of population, with similar levels of deprivation, similar numbers of children on free school meals, where one particular local authority does extremely well and another one doesn't.

"We'll be asking a question - why is it parents in some parts of the country have less than a 50% chance of getting their children into a good primary school where there are other parts of the country where that chance is over 90%?"

Ofsted's rankings illustrate these differences by ranking councils in terms of the inspection judgements made about schools in their areas, including academies which are outside of local authority control.

BOTTOM FIVE

Telford and Wrekin 53%
Wakefield 52%
Thurrock 49%
Derby 43%
Coventry 42%

Source: Ofsted, % of pupils attending good or outstanding primary

MP calls for action over failing Coventry schools



A COVENTRY MP has called on the government to take action against failing schools.

Geoffrey Robinson has written to education secretary Michael Gove after it was revealed just 42 per cent of pupils attended a good or outstanding school in the city.

It left Coventry at the bottom of a national report by Ofsted into standards. Mr Robinson said he was disturbed by chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw's report.

And he told Mr Gove: "I’m sure you can fully understand my huge disappointment and sense of urgency to act on this matter."

The Coventry North West MP called for an urgent meeting with the two fellow city MPs, the department for education, and education chiefs at the council.

He also called on the city council's director of children's services, Colin Green, to resign "given the total failure of his department".

Coventry primary schools face inspections

Ofsted inspectors are targeting Coventry's primary schools in a bid to find out why they are 'underperforming'.

The watchdog said just 54% of primary age children in Coventry attended a school rated good or better, compared with a national average of 74%.

Eleven primaries are due to be inspected this week, alongside phone surveys at other schools.

Coventry City Council said improvements had been made over the last year.

It said, since November the proportion of children attending a good or outstanding school had risen from 42% to 58%, slightly higher than figures contained in Ofsted's annual report, because of more recent inspections.

The local authority manages 89 primary schools in the city.

'Clear strategy'

Councillor David Kershaw, responsible for education, said he was confident local primary schools would continue to improve.

"There is still more work to do and we have identified a clear strategy with head teachers and governors to achieve this," he said.

Ofsted said the inspections were being carried out to find out why there were differences in standards between local authorities with similar demographics, such as population and levels of deprivation.

The watchdog said it hoped the week-long inspections would give "a powerful snapshot" of how primary schools are performing since its annual report was published.

It warned, depending on what inspectors found, the local authority could be investigated over its statutory duty to provide fair access to good quality education, under new rules due to come into force in May.

Mr Kershaw said the council welcomed the latest inspections and that it was on "a secure journey of improvement to ensure that every school in Coventry is good or outstanding".

Coventry City Council said while there were still improvements to be made at its primary schools, some 85% of secondary school pupils received a good or outstanding education, well above the national average of 71%.