Bath and North East Somerset has been named as one of the areas in the country where children are "likely" to attend a good or outstanding primary school.
In a nationwide report published by education watchdog Ofsted today, it was revealed that 77 per cent of primary age children in the authority area attend a school that has been rated as good or outstanding.
This puts the city in the top 35 primary school areas in the country.
It also makes B&NES one of the best performing areas in the region - nearby, in North Somerset, 62 per cent of children go to a primary school rated good or outstanding; in Bristol only 58 per cent of children go to a high-performing school; in Wiltshire 73 per cent of children do and in Somerset the figure is 65 per cent.
In South Gloucestershire 78 per cent of children go to a good or outstanding primary.
Launching his first Annual Report, Sir Michael Wilshaw (Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills) said that leadership in schools, in colleges and in local authorities was key to driving up standards and ensuring all young people get the good education they deserve.
Today's report is underpinned by the findings of nearly 25,000 inspections carried out during 2011/12 of early years and childcare, schools, colleges and adult learning and skills – providing a unique evidence base for the key conclusions.
The main conclusions in the report are:•schools in England are getting better – although there is still a long way to go before the nation catches up with the best in the world•there are wide variations in the performance of schools across different local authority areas, leading to serious inequities for children in some parts of the country•Ofsted has identified major concerns with the quality of provision in the post-16 Learning and Skills sector, especially in colleges, which are not adequately preparing young people for the world of work.
Sir Michael said that the upward trend in the performance of the schools system could be put down to better leadership and a slow improvement in the quality of teaching.
He said: "Heads are now in the driving seat in a way I could only have dreamed of 20 years ago. They now have more autonomy and more control over their resources than ever before.
"A growing number of heads are also committed to improving schools beyond their own through cluster and federation arrangements.
"Academies are also making a difference. Most of the sponsored academies that we have inspected are better than the poor quality schools they replaced."
Examples of the inequality of access to good or outstanding schools across different local authorities highlighted in the Annual Report include:•a child living in Derby or Doncaster has only half the chance of attending a good or better primary or secondary school compared with a child living in Wigan or Darlington•a parent in Coventry has only a 42 per cent chance of sending their child to a good or better maintained primary school in the local authority area compared with a 92 per cent chance for a parent living in the London Borough of Camden.
Sir Michael said: "The inequities for local children are stark. This is completely unacceptable.
"That's why I intend, from January, to use Ofsted's new regional structure to inquire further into areas that are performing badly. We need to find out what is happening, and inspect where necessary. We will also work with local areas to support them and help them link up with best practice."The graph below shows how primary schools in B&NES have performed over the last four years as at August 31 each year.![]()
The graph below shows how secondary schools in B&NES have performed over the last four years as at August 31 each year.![]()
