Pupils in Swindon are being “failed at every level” because of the poor performance of the town’s primary and secondary schools, according to Ofsted.
The watchdog has warned that not enough children in the area are reaching the expected standards at the age of six, 11, or by the time they sit their GCSEs.
The inspectorate has today published a letter calling on headteachers, chief executives of academy chains, the local authority and the regional school commissioner to pull together to ensure pupils in the area get a better deal.
Bradley Simmonds, Ofsted’s regional director for the south west, said: “Pupils in Swindon are being failed at every level. Primary school performance, which had previously shown a positive trend of improvement in Swindon, is now a concern.”
And he added that a similar decline had occurred among the town’s secondary schools, with just one school out of five rated good buy inspectors in recent visits.
The 2016 phonics result were among the worst in the country, with just 75 per cent of six year olds reaching the expected standard.
At key stage 1, Swindon’s seven year olds are the joint lowest performers in reading in the South West and the trend continues with only 44 per cent of 11 year olds reaching the new expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics at key stage 2.
At GCSE only 17.3 per cent of pupils achieved the English Baccalaureate - which is made up of the academic subjects including maths, English, science, a language and either history or geography - compared with 22.8 per cent in England as a whole.
Mr Simmonds warned that no one involved in the education of Swindon’s young people should be in any doubt of the “seriousness of these concerns”.
“If Swindon’s pupils are to have the skills and qualifications required to improve their life chances everyone with a responsibility for education needs to take immediate action,” he added.
Swindon Council was approached for a comment.
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