JUST 35 per cent of pupils in St Helens attend a secondary school that is good or outstanding, placing the borough 148th in England's rankings.

Ofsted's figures for 2014 marks a 12 per cent reduction on last year’s 47 per cent and underlines the concerns over the standards of secondary education.

While the performance of primary schools continues to be positive, with 89 per cent of pupils attending good or outstanding schools, it again stresses the gulf between teaching for younger and older pupils.

The figure at secondary level, based on inspections by the school watchdog, shows St Helens lagging behind neighbouring boroughs with Warrington having 68 per cent of its pupils at a good or outstanding school and Knowsley, Wigan and Liverpool all on 77 per cent.

In St Helens, only Cowley, Haydock and Rainhill High received a ranking of good in their most recent inspections and the borough does not have one outstanding secondary school.

Of the findings, Andy Dempsey, director of children and young people’s services at St Helens Council said:  “We are aware of the low proportion of our secondary schools currently judged to be good or outstanding by Ofsted and are working intensively with schools to improve this.

“Against a backcloth of considerable change through qualification and curriculum reform St Helens secondary schools have maintained their performance and are currently above national averages for five GCSEs A* to C including English and maths. 

“National performance is at 52.6% of pupils gaining five A*- C including English and maths and St Helens secondary schools are achieving 54.6%.

“We expect this position to improve further over the coming years and that the judgements of the regulator will improve accordingly.”

St Helens Council recently appointed Phil Fitzpatrick as School Commissioner, whose principal role will be to chair the School Improvement Board.