Primary schools must do better - council education chief

David Kershaw has insisted Coventry's schools are improving despite Ofsted's national league table putting the city bottom of the pile. (s)

SOME of Coventry's primary schools are 'clearly not good enough', the council's education chief has admitted.

Coun David Kershaw's admission was in response to Ofsted's annual report which revealed fewer than half of pupils attend a successful school.

And it placed the city at the bottom of a nationwide league table.

Coventry came dead last in the table with just 42 per cent of youngsters attending a school judged good or outstanding in Ofsted inspections.

It was one per cent below second-worst Derby and seven per cent below Thurrock. They were the only three areas to have a figure below 50 per cent.

The top performing area was Camden in London with 92 per cent of pupils attending a school in the watchdog's top two performance ratings.

Coun Kershaw, the former head teacher of Coundon Court School who took up the role as education cabinet member for the city council in May, claimed the city would move up the rankings next year.

He said: "We are very disappointed and the achievements of some schools are clearly not good enough.

"However we have a programme of intervention that is already showing great progress.

"Since September we have seen an increase of five per cent of the number of pupils in schools that are good or outstanding.

"We believe in having high expectations and not making excuses and our strategies are beginning to work. I fully expect that in 12 months time we will be well up the table."

Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw pinpointed the city in his report and asked questions of the area.

He said: "Why is it that Coventry has a smaller proportion of pupils attending good or better primary schools than any local authority area in the country?

"Do local parents realise this? What is being done about it?"

He added families' hopes of their children getting a good school relied too much on where they lived, which led to serious inequalities.

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