Major Yorkshire school improvement projects needed in West, South and East of the region, Ofsted warns

Nick Hudson told the Yorkshire Post that urgent action was needed to ensure the performance of the region’s schools catch up with the rest of the country.

Around one-in-four pupils attend a school in Yorkshire judged to be inadequate or requiring improvement by the education watchdog and the most recent Ofsted annual report shows the region is the worst performing area in primary school and among the worst at secondary.

Mr Hudson said that major intervention was needed to change this situation in the same way in which London schools have been transformed over the past 12 years.

He said that Yorkshire was too big and varied an area to directly replicate the London Challenge a project which saw education experts appointed to work to improve “keys to success” schools.

But he suggested councils in different parts of Yorkshire could work together to ensure the best teaching and leadership was in place in areas facing the biggest challenges.

However Coun Lucinda Yeadon, Leeds City Council’s executive member for children and families has responded saying that local education authorities in Yorkshire were already working together and committed to raising standards.

The Pathfinder initiative was launched two years ago by all 15 education authorities in the region which focuses on getting schools which are said to require improvement to work together to achieve a rating of good from Ofsted. This has supported 60 schools so far.

Mr Hudson said much larger projects were needed but focused on different parts of the region.

He said:“One uniform approach for Yorkshire isn’t going to work. The distances are too big.

“There needs to be a sub regional approach. We need to see local authorities working together to ensure that the very best practice in their area is being shared.

“Yorkshire and the Humber is too big for one project but something like a programme around West Yorkshire, another around South Yorkshire and in those areas which hug the Humber.”

Mr Hudson also said closing the gap in attainment between pupils on free school meals and their peers was crucial to improving school results in Yorkshire.

He told The Yorkshire Post that the large number of pupils from deprived backgrounds meant that any significant improvement in their performance would result in big improvements for Yorkshire as a region.

However he said that the level of poverty in Yorkshire should not be used as an excuse for the region’s schools lagging behind.

He said; “I accept that if you were comparing results in Barnsley and York, people in Barnsley would be right to say that the profile of the areas are completely different. But if you look at an area like South Tyneside it faces deprivation levels similar to those in parts of Yorkshire and yet it has one of the highest proportion of good primary schools across Yorkshire and the North East.

Ofsted classes Yorkshire and the North East as one area - which Mr Hudson is responsible for as regional director.

He said that one of the most striking things about the schools in his patch was the difference in Ofsted ratings of primary schools in the North East compared with Yorkshire.

The North East has the highest proportion of primary schools rated as good or better in the country while Yorkshire has the lowest.

Mr Hudson added that transforming education was critical to the success of the Northern Powerhouse to ensure young people have the qualification and skills they need. And he said councils should be able to lead school improvement programmes regardless of whether they are given greater powers through devolution.

Coun Yeadon said: “Local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber are committed to improving standards in education and to achieve this, collaborative working across the regions is taking place and increasing. The local authorities are stimulating collaborative work with regional universities, the Education Endowment Fund, teaching school alliances and academy sponsors to raise standards of learning across all phases and with all providers.”

Hull City Council’s director for children, young people and family services Mil Vasic said: “Locally we, including the political framework, are determined to build on the improvements that are evident, particularly in primary, and even more of our schools are good, and there is, maybe more than ever across the city a collective will to get it right for the children and young people of Hull.”