SCHOOLS in south Essex are maintaining a high standard according to Ofsted after a report showed more than 100 schools across the country are not improving.

A report from Amanda Speilman, the chief inspector for Ofsted, stated that 135 schools in England have failed to achieve a ‘good’ inspection in 12 years.

Following the report, the list of schools showed that none were based in Basildon, Southend or on Canvey.

James Courtenay, Southend’s councillor for children and learning was very pleased with the news, which he feels shows the town’s schools are working well to maintain its high ratings.

He said: “I think that all schools have ups and downs and it is important that when a problem occurs, that the school works quickly to deliver better outcomes.

“In Southend, schools work closely to ensure the continued improvement of them and we have stated an ambition for all our schools to achieve ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.”

Although Southend schools are continuing to perform, shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner said other parts of the country are not coping.

It is reported that of the 20,000 schools in the country, 500 of those for children of primary age and 200 for over-11s have failed to make the grade.

However, 90 per cent of all primary schools and nearly 80 per cent of all secondary schools are rated good or outstanding, the report says.

Mrs Rayner said schools were struggling with Government policies which had created problems with teachers’ pay and recruitment while driving up their workload.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The Government have missed their teacher recruitment target. One in three of our Sure Start centres have closed.

“Many teachers have lost up to £5,000 of their real-terms wage over this period.

“But it’s not just about money, it’s the workload, the pace of change, the difficulty with restrictions and being able to give every child those opportunities.

“We have got to start addressing that issue. Just dealing with the opportunity areas is not enough. Ofsted is quite clear that it is not about areas in particular, it’s schools that are still not able to raise their standards and raise their game.”

Ms Speilman said that improvements have to be made to schools very quickly as in some cases, schools have failed to improve in the last 15 years.

She said: “A child’s time in a typical secondary school is five years, that means we’re on to a third generation of children through these schools who have never experienced being in a good school.”