CHILDREN at some Worcestershire primary schools are not being pushed hard enough by ‘complacent teachers who coast through lessons’.

A report to Worcestershire County Council has highlighted a worrying trend in standards of education at key stage 2, leaving the county’s 11-year-olds trailing behind the national average.

In response to the report, some councillors have accused schools of adopting a ‘culture of complacency’ and say governing bodies are not doing enough to raise standards.

The report on school performance found: • 82 schools – 34 per cent – in Worcestershire (as of January) were rated satisfactory and below by Ofsted
• 95 schools – 39 per cent – are in the lower half of the council’s category rating system
• Key stage 2 and A-level results consistently fall below the national average.

But it wasn’t all bad news.

• Children’s attainment has continued to improve at ages five and seven over the past 12 months
• More pupils than ever are now achieving five or more GCSEs at A* to C grade, including English and maths. Headteachers in Worcester have denied they are complacent and say they are working hard to raise standards.

The report said that in 2009/10, 23 (10 per cent) of Worcestershire schools were judged outstanding by Ofsted inspectors, 132 (56 per cent) as good, 76 (32 per cent) as satisfactory and six (two per cent) as inadequate.

While 69 per cent of schools achieved good and better in quality of teaching, only 53 per cent scored well in attainment.

Councillor Fran Oborski – a former teacher and LEA adviser – told members of Worcestershire County Council’s children and young people overview and scrutiny panel that in some parts of Worcestershire, there was a “culture of complacency”. “It’s so unprofessional. I’m not saying there are a lot but we do have some teachers where Worcestershire has been a nice, gentle option for them rather then going to the more challenging schools 10 or 15 miles up the road,” she said.

Councillor Barry Gandy said some teachers were not challenging pupils enough.

“As a maths governor, I sat in on a number of lessons where the children were happy and very well behaved and the teaching was good, but the actual content of the lesson was minimal,” he said.

Nick Browne, service manager for children’s services, said the council was working with “vulnerable” Satisfactory schools to ensure they did not decline further. And Clive Chorley, a parent governor, said governors needed to be ready to challenge headteachers.

“Part of the problem I hear from governors is trying to change the ethos where governors are yes men to heads,” he said.

“We need to come up with a new blueprint for governing bodies.”

After the meeting, Gareth Morgan, headteacher at Cranham Primary School in Warndon, Worcester, which was rated ‘Satisfactory’ by Ofsted in December, said the school had been working hard to improve.

“I have never met anyone who was complacent,” he said. “It’s just not that sort of working environment – it’s constantly developing, constantly changing and you can’t rest on your laurels. I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t want to improve.”

Anne Potter, headteacher at Stanley Road School, rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted in its last three reports, said hers was one of six schools which worked “really hard” together to do well.

“I think there’s such a pressure put on schools to achieve I find it difficult to believe people don’t know how to improve,” she said.

The panel agreed to discuss different ways of delivering support to governors in their roles as unpaid volunteers.

• Your Worcester News was the only member of the media to attend this meeting.