Why Yorkshire parents are least likely to find a good school

One-in-four schools in the region are rated less than good by the inspection watchdog - this is higher than any other Government region in England.

Ofsted has published tables showing inspection outcomes from schools it has visited between April and June of this year and an updated national picture of the number of schools found to be outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate.

Figures show that there are more than 500 schools in Yorkshire rated less than good.

Three per cent of schools - 72 in total - were ranked as inadequate and another 22 per cent, 487 schools were found to require improvement. This means 25 per cent of schools in the county are less than good. This compares with a national average of 20 per cent. In contrast in the North East only 14 per cent of schools are rated less than good.

Across Yorkshire 59 per cent of schools are rated as good - 1,269 in total - and 16 per cent - 338 in total - are outstanding.

Nationally up to 67 per cent of schools have been judged as good or outstanding, according to new Ofsted figures.

The school inspectors found that 67 per cent of schools in England visited between April 1 and June 30 were considered to be good or outstanding - a two per cent improvement from the previous quarter.

Ofsted said that of the 21,176 school inspections it had carried out since 2009, the number which had reached this grading had hit 80 per cent by June 30. This comes after a steady upward growth from 78 per cent in August last year and 79 per cent in March.

In the inspections carried out in April to June Ofsted judged that 122 schools were outstanding, 825 were good, 409 required improvement and 57 were inadequate.

Among the inspections were 414 schools which previously had been rated as requiring improvement, up from 117 in the previous quarter.

The Ofsted report said: “As it is now almost two years since the ‘requires improvement’ judgment was introduced there is a greater number of ‘requires improvement’ schools due for re-inspection.”

Requires improvement replaced Ofsted’s previous rating of satisfactory.