COUNTY councillors are planning an inquiry into why Oxford’s seven-year-olds have the worst Key Stage One test results in England.

Oxfordshire County Council’s children’s services scrutiny committee will decide next week whether to set up a review into results in schools across the county.

Department for Education results revealed last year city schools were the worst performing in the country.

Scrutiny committee chairman Ann Bonner said the review would aim to find out whether the county council was doing enough to increase results.

She said: “We have to make certain the correct remedial actions are in place.

“If we are not satisfied with what they are telling us then we can look at it deeper and in a different way.

“We can keep bringing people back until we are satisfied.

“Our remit is to look at things across the whole county.

“I don’t think these results highlighted there was lower-than-average results in city schools alone, but it did in various places, including parts of Banbury and some rural pockets.”

Department for Education figures published in November revealed almost a fifth of the 1,274 seven-year-olds in Oxford fell short in maths, and almost a quarter in reading. Almost three out of 10 did not reach the level of writing expected for their age group.

The results were nine per cent lower than the national average in reading, 10 per cent in writing and seven per cent in maths.

And at Key Stage Two, the city’s 11-year-olds are in the bottom 10 per cent in the country.

County Hall has insisted primary school performance is improving, and it has been helping train teachers to improve pupils’ reading, writing and maths.

Officers also say teacher assessments used at Key Stage One are less consistent in judging pupils’ attainment than tests.

Education expert John Howson, a specialist in schools data who advises Liberal Democrat policy makers, backed the move for an inquiry into Oxford’s primary school results.

He said: “We need to find out whether this is a statistical abberation because of Oxford’s peculiar demographics, and why, after we have put so much time, money and effort into improving primary school education, have the results been so bad.

“We should also ask why results get into such a state to begin with?”

He said lessons could be learned from Rose Hill Primary School, where Key Stage Two results shot up from 19 per cent of pupils achieving expected levels in English and maths in 2008, to 77 per cent in 2010, making it the most improved school in the country.

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk