OXFORD WEST and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood says the city’s school results are a “wake-up call” for Oxfordshire County Council and has asked Education Secretary Michael Gove for help.

Miss Blackwood said Key Stage One attainment levels – which put seven-year-olds at schools within the city boundary at the bottom of the national league table – were “worrying”.

The Conservative MP, who has also contacted Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for schools improvement, Michael Waine, said she was confident both Government education plans and the council could turn the situation around with the support of teachers, parents and the community.

But she said specific targets and time scales would not be fair and would distract schools from getting on with the job in hand.

Key Stage One results showed that 24 per cent of Oxford children were not reading at the required standard, 29 per cent missed their writing target and 18 per cent their maths target.

Yesterday, Mr Waine said he was sorry for the “inadequate” results at Oxford schools.

But he said they were “virtually autonomous” and claimed some headteachers, governors and parents were resisting the council’s attempts to improve standards.

Miss Blackwood said: “The Oxford Key Stage One results are worrying, especially for parents and teachers.”

The MP outlined her concerns and those of parents to Mr Gove.

She added: “I challenged him on what the Government is going to do to improve primary education.”

Miss Blackwood said Mr Gove had told her policies including promoting the use of systematic synthetic phonics, short reading tests for six-year-olds, to identify those who need extra help earlier, and support for disadvantaged children by introduction of a pupil premium, would help to improve performance.

Miss Blackwood said results in the city were not good enough and time needed to be taken to identify the root causes.

She added: “There are challenges in Oxford with deprived families and there’s a bigger gap between rich and poor in the UK and that has a knock-on effect on education.”

Regarding the county council's role, the MP said: “They have come forward with statements of action. I do believe this has been a wake-up call. Sometimes it’s difficult to see these things coming.

“They could do better. These aren’t the results we want. I will be urging them to do better and I’m sure they are able to do that.

“The approach has to be constructive. Pointing the finger won’t help anyone at this point.”