SECONDARY schools in York and North Yorkshire are bucking a national trend which shows improvement has stalled, according to Ofsted.

In the East Riding of Yorkshire Council area however only 46 per cent of secondary schools are rated as good or outstanding putting the authority at equal141st out of the 150 local authorities in England.

Meanwhile in York 93 per cent of secondary schools and 86 per cent of primaries were good or outstanding ranking City of York Council equal 14th and 45th equal respectively.

Launching his third Annual Report, chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, said: "The essential ingredients for success are no secret and have been well documented from time immemorial strong leadership, a positive and orderly culture, good teaching and robust assessment systems.”

Increasing numbers of North Yorkshire’s pupils are attending good or outstanding schools, 78 per cent of primary school children attended good or outstanding schools in 2013/14, an increase of four per cent on the previous year and 76 per cent of secondary pupils - an increase of two per cent, this puts them at equal 103 and equal 74th respectively out of 150.

Mike Furbank, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s head of children and young people, education and schools, said the East Riding is making progress, with the majority of East Riding schools inspected recently have previously been rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted and have retained that ranking, with two schools moving to ‘outstanding’, but that means they have not changed the overall ‘good or better’ figure.

Meanwhile City of York Council has welcomed government figures released today (11 December) which show that York pupils are continuing to perform above the national average in their Key Stage 2 tests, ranking the city’s results second only to those in East Riding in Yorkshire and Humber.

The Department for Education (DfE) published the final results for the June 2014 Key Stage 2 tests for 11-year-olds. Results at Level 4+, the expected level of achievement for 11-year-olds show 79 per cent of pupils achieved level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths in line with the national average.

One particular success highlighted by the 2014 results was the narrowing of the performance gap between children from deprived backgrounds and their peers.

Janet Looker, cabinet member for education, at City of York Council, said: “I am pleased with these results which show that York’s primary schools continue to perform well against the national picture. I’d like to congratulate pupils and staff on their hard work and commitment, as well as parents and carers for their support, which is so important.”