Northumberland schools have been jointly ranked as the best in the North East for the first time. A table showing the performance of schools ranked by local authority area puts Northumberland at the top for schools achieving ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ ratings.
94% of schools in Northumberland are rated Good or Outstanding since their last inspections, the highest in the LA7 combined authority area and above the England average of 89%. LA7 authorities include: Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, and County Durham.
When Labour last controlled Northumberland County Council in 2017 only 76% of schools were rated ‘Good’ or ’Outstanding’. Since then there has been a significant increase in funding per pupil and a number of capital investments including a programme of rebuilding the county’s schools.
Northumberland County Council’s cabinet member for Education, who was announced this week as the Conservative candidate for the North East Combined Authority, Guy Renner-Thompson, said:
‘These results are testament to the hard work of all the governors, teachers, parents, pupils and staff, with the support of our excellent council school improvement team. School improvement teams came from a government initiative to improve processes in schools across the country but funding for those came to an end this year. I made clear to Northumberland County Council leader Glen Sanderson that I believed these teams were too invaluable to lose and he fully agreed with me that they should continue, but financed from the council’s own budget.
‘Education is my passion. Education and training are the best routes into a well-paid job and it all starts at a good school. One of my key aims if elected mayor is to level up our schools and colleges across the region to get people ready for the jobs of the future.
‘The North East Devolution deal includes an indicative budget of around £1.8bn, or £60m a year, for adult education and skills. The deal is also committed to enabling education recovery to address Covid learning loss, addressing disparities and improving life chances for children throughout their time in education, starting in the Early Years Foundation Stage.'
