Wiltshire schools’ academic standards are still behind the regional and national levels according to figures for 2022 published by the education watchdog, Ofsted.

The percentage of schools reaching good or outstanding ratings is 81.7%, which is below the national number of 87.7%, according to a report from the Head of School Effectiveness for Wiltshire Council, Lesley Lowe.

Wiltshire Council’s Children’s Select Committee is going to discuss the report Tuesday next week.

However, Ms Lowe’s report said it was primarily the academies, which are not run by the council but funded directly by the government, rather than maintained schools which are run by the council, which were responsible for the sub-par Ofsted reports.

There is no explanation in the report of why Wiltshire schools in general are performing below national standards.

Her report says: “The breakdown comparison between maintained schools and academies shows that the percentage of Good or Outstanding maintained schools is 2.2% lower than national, and Good or Outstanding Academies is 21.7% lower than National.”

Liberal Democrat leader, Councillor Ian Thorn, was cautious about prematurely blaming the council and will wait to see what is said by the Children’s Select Committee meeting next week.

He said: “I am as keen as the next person to be damning of Wiltshire Council, but I wouldn’t at this stage without having more information.”

The report also showed that the number of children who are not getting full educational provision from the council dramatically increased from 2021-22.

It jumped from 194 in the period 2020-21 to 294 between 2021-22.

The number of children who were home educated also jumped.

It went from 731 in the period 2020-21 to 811 between 2021-22.

Click here to watch the children’s select committee meeting live on 20 September at 10:30am.