STANDARDS at Key Stage 2 in Dorset schools have been improving, but is still below the regional and national average.

A report this week says that at the moment progress in reading is declining while improvements are being made with writing and maths.

Questions are now being asked about whether the county’s Middle School system could partly explain the problem – because by the time pupils get to Key Stage 4 they are returning good results with Dorset schools in the top quartile. The same standards apply to most Dorset schools at Key Stage 1.

The county council’s people and communities committee heard on Thursday that because of the middle school systems pupils were taking KS2 tests only a short while after transferring from a lower level schools, which may affect performance.

Interim social services director Nick Jarman told the committee that in three years there had been a 15 per cent improvement at KS2 in Dorset schools, but the county still remained below national average, partially because other areas had made bigger improvements.

He said that initial research had found no significant differences at the KS2 level between maintained schools of those which were run by academies, but it was noted that nationally, middle schools do not perform well at Key Stage 2. He said Dorset has one third of Middle School pupils in year 6, the time when KS2 is taken.

Dorset is now one of only a small number of areas which has middle schools.

Mr Jarman said that while schools were being encouraged to work together to improve standards and offered help from the county council it was now their choice whether or not they chose to do so. He also acknowledged that attracting maths specialists had proved difficult, especially for smaller schools.

“Five or six years ago Dorset schools would have been considered good, but others elsewhere have improved more,” he said.

He told the committee that around 20 per cent of the county’s 268 schools were now in a category where they were at risk of being rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ and while the county council was able to offer some support and guidance the main responsibility for running schools was now in their own hands.