Yorkshire has the country's highest number of schools considered 'stuck' in cycle of low Ofsted ratings

'Stuck' schools make up three per cent of the region's institutions, according to an annual report released by the educational watchdog on Tuesday.

The description relates to schools which have consistently received either an 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement' rating in every inspection since 2006.

According to the report, some 72 schools out of 2,241 (3 per cent) in Yorkshire & the Humber fit this description, the highest figure out of all regions in England.

Yorkshire & the Humber also has the third smallest number of schools overall, with only the North East and East Midlands having fewer institutions.

Ofsted officials have said this means that children in Yorkshire are being let down and not getting a good education through no fault of their own.

Of all 'stuck' schools in England, nearly two thirds (63 per cent) are in towns and small cities while a third (33 per cent) are in urban conurbations such as Leeds and Bradford.

Just four per cent were village schools.

Emma Ing, Ofsted's Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “[An] area for concern is the number of schools that have been unable to secure a good or outstanding judgement for some years, sometimes referred to as stuck schools. Children in these schools don’t get to attend a good school for much or even most of their education and that really lets these children down

“We recently published research on this issue that highlighted that 3%, that is 3 in 100, of schools in our region fit this description. I am hopeful the findings from this research will help schools break the cycle and achieve a good or outstanding rating.”

One area of Yorkshire working to pull its schools out of the cycle is Doncaster.

Doncaster Council has said it is working to bring down the level of exclusions and absences among pupils, while overseeing a rise in key skills such as maths and literacy.

A spokeswoman said: "We have improved significantly since 2017 in a variety of areas including reading, and particularly so in maths and writing, and we have robust plans in place to maintain this improvement and continue to close the gap on national average going forward.

"Whilst we acknowledge that there is still much to be done by local schools to reduce the level of exclusions ,we can see the impact of recent work done in the borough in 2018-2019 which has taken place since the data used in this report was published.

"Since this period we have seen some shifts in the long term trends for our secondary schools. Our strategies for improving exclusion and reducing absence have led to an overall reduction of 0.3% in the number of sessions lost to exclusion at secondary level during last academic year. Over this period only five of our nineteen schools have increased their levels of exclusion and the majority have seen clear reductions.

"We will continue to deliver our behaviour transformation programme, which is aimed at supporting schools so that they can meet children’s needs as quickly and effectively as possible, therefore reducing the need to use exclusions."