BRADFORD’s school results are improving in some areas but are remaining stubbornly low in others, council bosses will hear at a meeting next week.

The discussion will mark two years since independent expert Professor David Woods published a 17-point improvement plan for the district’s struggling schools.

The council’s education boss, Councillor Imran Khan, said they “have still got a long way to go” but he was confident they were on the right track.

In 2014, Bradford Council commissioned Prof Woods to examine why Bradford’s performance remained so low and set out an improvement plan.

He gave 17 recommendations for change, including getting schools to share best practice and working with Ofsted and the Department for Education on joint improvement activities.

And he emphasised the need for a greater sense of focus and challenge to drive improvements at pace, saying: “The need for improvement is great and the task is urgent.”

A progress report by strategic director for children’s services, Michael Jameson, says that as of this month, all the recommendations have been taken on, and most had been put in place within the first year.

But the effects so far on the district’s schooling appear to have been patchy, with the report setting out “where achievements have been made and where further work is required”.

There have been improvements in performance for the youngest pupils at pre-school level and in Year 1.

And the number of primary schools judged by inspectors to be good or outstanding has risen from 64 per cent to 73 per cent in the past year.

But reading levels remain a big concern at the age of 11, with this year’s results “well below the national average”.

The number of secondary schools judged good or outstanding remains the same, at just 41 per cent, and the district’s GCSE results remain below average.

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The report says: “Clearly there is much still to do to improve performance of pupils leaving secondary schools if we are to achieve the objective in the local authority’s Education Covenant of all young people in the district leaving school ready for work and life.”

Cllr Khan stressed this was only “the start of the process” and said he was keen to get Prof Woods to revisit the situation at some point to analyse the progress made and give any further advice.

He said Prof Woods’ original report had been very valuable, saying: “It is always good to have independent people to come in and assess where we are and what we are doing.”

The opposition Conservatives’ education spokesman, Councillor Debbie Davies, said she had backed the plan and she recognised it would take time to see improvements in some cases.

But she said the poor inspection results at many secondary schools were “very disappointing”.

Cllr Davies also said she was concerned by the reading results at age 11.

She said: “Reading is something I feel passionately about, in terms of getting younger children enthusiastic about books.

“To me, reading is absolutely crucial, so we need to get on top of reading at an early age.”

The Executive will meet to discuss the report at City Hall at 10.30am on Tuesday.

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