THE AMOUNT of Bradford schools rated in Ofsted's top two brackets is on the rise, a new report reveals.

Education watchdog, Ofsted, released its Annual Report for 2018/19 today and it shows the city's schools are improving in several categories.

Bradford's primary schools particularly excelled between August 31, 2018 and August 31, 2019.

There was a four per cent rise in those judged as "Good" or "Outstanding" by Ofsted.

This now means 78 per cent of Bradford's primary schools are categorised in one of the top two ratings.

It is still below the average of 82 per cent for Yorkshire and the Humber and Bradford sits in second-last, in the region.

But, the city's primary schools are way ahead of Doncaster's, sitting bottom of the pack on 69 per cent and Bradford is making headway on the regional average - which did not budge from last year.

Councillor Imran Khan, portfolio holder for education, employment and skills, said: "What the report from Ofsted shows is that there has been some improvement in Bradford schools compared to the previous year.

"This is particularly the case with primaries where the Ofsted data shows we have seen a 4 per cent improvement.

"This reflects recent primary school tables which also showed the overall position for reading, writing and maths closing the gap on the national average.

"But we know there is much more to do, and our ambition as a district has to be for all our schools to be Good or Outstanding."

The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in Key Stage 2, in reading, writing and maths combined, is only better than three other locations and falls just below the averages for both the region and the rest of England.

Bradford primary schools beat out Leeds by one per cent, Doncaster by two per cent and Rotherham by three per cent.

At 62 per cent attainment, the primary schools in the city are underperforming marginally on the regional average of 63 and the national average of 65.

It is a similar picture in the subjects of reading and maths separately.

For the former, 70 per cent of Bradford's primary school pupils reach the expected standard in Key Stage 2.

That again falls one per cent below the regional average and three below the national average.

But, less than half of the areas in Yorkshire and the Humber met the national average for reading.

In maths, Bradford's percentage sits at 77 per cent - just one shy of the regional average and two of the national average.

Bradford's secondary schools are also on the up, but the percentage of those achieving "Good" or "Outstanding" ratings is still drastically short of the national average.

That is 76 per cent, whereas the amount of secondaries in Bradford, in Ofsted's top two brackets, is 58 per cent - the same as Kingston upon Hull.

This however is a three per cent rise from the previous year.

It shows improvements are being made and this is something Mark Douglas, Strategic Director of Children's Services at Bradford Council, wants to further enhance.

He said: "We are working hard to drive improvement with the schools we maintain and to increase that pace of improvement, but we’re also committed to work in partnership with academies, free schools, the diocese and other partners where the Council has no control over the school.

"We’re working with the Regional Schools Commissioner to see how we can accelerate improvement for schools across the free school and academy sector and would also welcome the opportunity to discuss this with Ofsted.

"In terms of Children’s Services, our most recent monitoring visit from Ofsted highlighted some positive developments on which we need to build.

"We are putting the building blocks in place that will help us make the improvements we need to make at a faster pace, including better training for staff, better data analysis and a recruitment campaign for social workers."

There has been no drop or rise in Bradford's average overall Progress 8 score in the past year.

This was also the case in Calderdale, Leeds, North Lincolnshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and Sheffield.

Only 34 per cent of secondary students in Bradford achieved a Grade 5 or above in English and Maths in 2018/19.

That is the third worst percentage in Yorkshire and the Humber.

But, Bradford's secondary schools are above average for the amount of pupils achieving their English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

The EBacc is a measure that allows people to see how many pupils get a grade C or 5 score - or above - in English, maths, history or geography, the sciences and a language.

Bradford's achievement rate is 41 per cent, which is one above the national average and four per cent above the regional average.