West Berkshire secondary school rankings fall short

Sir Michael Wilshaw published his first annual report as Ofsted chief inspector, on Tuesday.
The report, which is underpinned by the findings of nearly 25,000 inspections carried out by Ofsted in 2011-12, shows that more than 70 per cent of pupils attend ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ primary or secondary schools in West Berkshire.
Out of 150 local authorities, West Berkshire is ranked 26th in terms of primary school performance. According to the figures, 79 per cent of pupils in West Berkshire attend a primary school deemed ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
The top performing district in Berkshire is Windsor and Maidenhead, which is 12th in the table with a percentage of 85 per cent.
Elsewhere, the percentage in Hampshire is 75, while in Swindon it is 74 per cent and in Reading 53 per cent.
However, in the secondary schools table, West Berkshire’s ranking is much lower, at 87 out of 150 local authorities, with a percentage of 68.
Windsor and Maidenhead is again the top performing authority in the county, with 78 per cent.Hampshire also has a percentage of 78, while Reading has 73 per cent and Swindon 53 per cent.
In his report, Sir Michael praised Ofsted, which is 20 years old this year.
“As a result of inspection, children, young people and learners now have a better chance of a good education and high-quality care.
“It is important that we remind those who complain about standards today of how low they were in pre-Ofsted days, and particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. In that time, whole generations of children and young people were failed by an unaccountable and, in many ways, self-indulgent school system.”
However, Sir Michael said that gaining a good education was still something of a postcode lottery
“The child of primary school age in England has on average a seven out of 10 (69 per cent) chance of being in a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ school. However, some have a better than 90 per cent and some worse than 50 per cent chance to attend a good or better school depending on where they live.”
Sir Michael also argues that schools in England have to improve ‘significantly’ to reach levels of literacy in other countries.
“In the survey, the literacy of our 15-year-olds was at a similar level to that of Denmark, France, Ireland, Germany and the United States, but was significantly behind other predominantly English speaking countries such as New Zealand, Australia and Canada; European partners such as The Netherlands, Belgium and Norway; and world leading educational – and economic – performers such as Shanghai-China, Hong Kong-China and Singapore.”