FIVE primary schools have been ordered to improve by Ofsted – with one placed in special measures – as league tables reveal that North East Lincolnshire's primary schools are 14th from the bottom in a table of 150 local authorities.
Ofsted, which regulates standards in schools, has placed Willows Primary in special measures after inspectors deemed standards "inadequate" in three out of four key areas – achievement, teaching and leadership, with safety of pupils judged as "satisfactory".
Four other schools, all run by North East Lincolnshire Council (NELC) and inspected since the beginning of the school year in September, have also been judged by inspectors as requiring improvement: Welholme Primary, Springfield Primary, Coomb Briggs Primary and Reynolds Primary.
The news comes as the Department for Education (DfE) releases statistics saying that only 56 per cent of children in North East Lincolnshire attend primary schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted.
The area is 14th from the bottom of the list, which includes 150 local authorities – the top being Camden, where the number is 92 per cent – and the percentage includes academies, not under local authority control.
Ofsted's chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, speaking on national radio, said: "Why is it parents in some parts of the country have less than a 50 per cent chance of getting their children into a good primary school where there are other parts of the country where that chance is over 90 per cent?"
However, Jack Blackmore, NELC's strategic director for people and communities, said that the council recognised a need for improvement in September 2011, which is why it invited strategic partner Serco to improve standards.
"We have been working intensively with schools and 2012 test results in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of Key Stage Two saw sharp rises in overall attainment," he said.
"More than two-thirds of our schools showed significant improvements in performance and the area achieved its best ever results."
The Ofsted report for Willows, which has 176 pupils, said that the school has "declined significantly" since the last full report in 2009, when the school was considered "good".
Of the other four schools, all went from "satisfactory" to "requires improvement" – which is actually the same category under revised Ofsted guidelines – apart from Springfield Primary which dropped down a grade from "good".
Mr Blackmore added: "The new Ofsted framework has rightly raised the bar for schools.
"Most recent Ofsted reports highlight the capacity for improvement in many of our schools and recognise the improvements being made while acknowledging that there is still some way to go.
"Those establishments identified as failing to provide an acceptable standard of education are making rapid progress as a result of improvements to leadership and governance, changes to curriculum and assessment and an increased emphasis of the quality of teaching."
See tomorrow's paper for more reaction.
