Pride as Dudley primaries beat national average

Ofsted's annual report ranks Dudley in joint 59th place in the country out of 150 local authorities, with 87 per cent of children going to good or outstanding schools.

The figure marks a rise of one per cent from 2013/14 and represents a three per cent increase in the number of better performing schools in the borough.

It also means Dudley is outperforming the other Black Country areas and Staffordshire in terms of the quality of its primary education.

Councillor Ian Cooper, Dudley Council's cabinet member for children's services said: "We are continually striving to build on the successes in our schools and bring about further improvements wherever possible.

"We have made significant strides in a number of areas; as a result, the percentage of primary schools that are good or better is now 87 per cent, which is better than the national picture.

"A wide range of work has included linking schools together to improve specific areas of the curriculum, such as maths and we have developed a far reaching school improvement strategy to drive standards up further.

"We will continue to work with schools to deliver our aspiration that all schools in Dudley are good or outstanding."

The Ofsted ratings of secondary schools in Dudley also improved this year. In total, 63 per cent of pupils now attend schools within the top two gradings, a rise of eight per cent. However, although the authority has moved up four places in the national table, it is still languishing in 123rd position for secondary schools.

The report also revealed that in Dudley 54 per cent of secondary school pupils are educated in academies, compared with just 5 per cent of of primary children.

Elsewhere in the Black Country, Walsall came bottom of the pile for primaries, with 71 per cent of children attending a good or outstanding school. The borough is now 143rd out of 150 local authorities.

Sandwell was 98th in the country on 83 per cent, Wolverhampton was 135th in the country on 74 per cent. Meanwhile Staffordshire dropped five places to 112th.

For secondary schools Sandwell was the worst performing borough in the region in 130th position, with 57 per cent of pupils attending good or outstanding schools.

Wolverhampton came top across the region for secondary schools, jumping 28 places in the national table to 81st spot, with 77 per cent of pupils attending schools rated in the top two tiers.

Dudley rose four places to 123rd spot on 63 per cent, while Staffordshire fell 17 places to 109th in the country.

Nationally the number of pupils attending good or outstanding schools averaged 85 per cent for primaries and 73.5 per cent for secondaries.