Council missing education targets across Bradford, shows new report

The document shows how the local authority oversaw declines - rather than improvements - in five of seven key areas.

It has led to calls for the Secretary of State for Education to meet local politicians and a war of words over who is to blame.

Ambitions to increase the number of children attending schools rated good by Ofsted and the number of pupils achieving five A* to C GCSE results are among those the local authority failed meet in the last financial year.

One of the district's new Labour MPs, Imran Hussain who also sits on Bradford Council, has called for urgent cross-party action to improve education standards, saying, "Bradford cannot fail another generation of its young people."

Meanwhile Keighley MP Kris Hopkins (Con) has laid the blame with Councillor Ralph Berry, who until recently was the authority's portfolio holder for education.

The Council's Annual Finance and Performance Outturn report looks at how the authority has performed in 44 target areas - seven are related to education and the performance in five of those areas has worsened.

In 2014/15, the percentage of pupils achieving five A* to C grade GCSEs fell at 23 out of the district's 27 secondary schools.

With the report saying some schools were not as prepared as they could have been for significant changes to GCSE exams.

The report says the poor results impacted on the percentage of schools where leadership was judged to be good or better.

Of the 69 schools inspected last year, four were judged to have inadequate leadership and12 required improvement.

When it comes to how many pupils attend a primary school judged good or outstanding, the current figure of 67 per cent compares to the national average of 81 per cent, and Bradford ranks 145th out of 151 local authorities.

The percentage of pupils attending good or outstanding secondary schools is just 42.9 per cent - compared to the national average of 75.8 per cent.

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The percentage of pupils achieving a level three qualification - such as an A-level - by the age of 19 also declined slightly.

But the percentage of pupils gaining level four standards in reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2 improved, while the number of 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, employment or training stayed the same.

The percentage of children achieving a good level of early years development did meet targets.

Last year the Council announced a target of having every school in Bradford judged good or outstanding by Ofsted by 2017.

Imran Hussain,MP for Bradford East, said: "If you look at education standards in Bradford, we have been bottom of league tables for longer than just last year.

"We can't be in this situation in ten years time and be having the same conversation about how we've failed another generation of Bradford's young people.

He said Bradford needed a City Challenge - similar to the London Challenge which successfully turned around London's worst schools.

"We can't continue just talking about this. I've requested a meeting with the education minister, this is a key priority for me," he said.

Naz Shah, the new Labour MP for Bradford West added: "The findings of this report are clearly unacceptable in terms of missing the targets."

She said she had been reassured the Council had changed its "delivery plan" in light of the report.

“I have asked for a meeting with Susan Hinchcliffe, the portfolio holder - education, skills and culture, and Council leader David Green to discuss this matter."

The leader of the Liberal Democrats on Bradford Council, Jeanette Sunderland, believes drastic action is needed.

"I think we need four or five massive steps. I'd say things like paying teachers more to teach at difficult schools, get rid of unqualified teachers, extend the school day, do away with long summer holidays and look at whether schools need to keep their sixth forms," she said.

Councillor Debbie Davies, the Conservative spokesman for education, said: "When the Council announced the target of every school being good or outstanding by 2017, I said we had to be more realistic.

"I'm all for targets, but they have to be achievable. It seems like the Council is setting itself up for failure so far."

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "The Regional Schools Commissioner has been challenging Bradford on the significant educational challenges it faces, as well as the performance of academies in the city.

"Where academies do not make sufficient progress we identify them quickly and take robust action."

The new councillor overseeing education in the Bradford district said improving schools was a "real priority" for the local authority.

Councillor Susan Hinchliffe said: “If things aren’t working, you change the plan and that’s exactly what we’ve done."

Cllr Hinchcliffe also referred to a "vital" report, commissioned by the authority last year, by Professor David Woods, which concluded there was a “lack of urgency” to improve the district’s education standards.

Prof Woods helped turn around London’s under-performing education system, as well as being an advisor for Birmingham schools.

The council said it had taken many of Prof Woods’ points on board, and in a recent interview with the Telegraph & Argus, he said he was confident results would improve.

He said: “I think things have begun to change and I have already seen new ways of working. I am pretty confident that results will be slightly better this summer, and by 2016 the reforms should be in place to see a considerable change.”

He predicted that by 2017, Bradford could be reaching the national average.

Cllr Hinchcliffe, the executive member for education on Bradford Council, addressed the disappointing outcomes from last year by saying: “We know that educational attainment levels in Bradford have not been improving fast enough.”

She added: “The report by Professor David Woods in September on Bradford was vital in pointing out the key changes we need to make. We’re now working much more closely with outstanding schools and leaders in the district so their best practice can be adopted by others.

“School improvement is a real priority and we have to remain ambitious for our young people.”

Councillor Malcolm Sykes, the chairman of the council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee, said school improvement measures would be based on the next set of results.

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He said: “This was a historical look back. We need to see what this year’s results are, although we can’t just wait. Our committee’s job is to make sure action continues to be taken.”

A group made up of schools throughout the district – including secondary schools, academies and free schools – called The Bradford Partnership is also in place to help improve the situation.

Members offer support to struggling schools, and staff visit other schools to carry out Ofsted-style inspections in an attempt to highlight any areas of weakness, or strength.

Addressing areas that are failing, the new performance report says: “The Bradford Partnership recognises that the outcomes are not good enough. They are carrying out robust reviews of their working to refocus their resources and expertise in order to accelerate improvements.”

In September, 100 new trainee teachers will start at schools across the district. The ‘Birth to 19’ teaching alliance, based at St Edmunds nursery and children’s’ centre, is aiming to offer on-the-job training.

The scheme will allow teachers to be sent to struggling schools, and is part of a push to train a new generation of outstanding teachers and school leaders.