Chris Woodhead has left the schools watchdog on a positive note

Mr Woodhead was speaking at the publication of a report on the national strategies for improving literacy and numeracy in England's primary schools.

Declining to be drawn on questions about his own departure from the education watchdog, he praised schools' achievements in raising standards in the basics of English and maths.

Schools were now "within striking distance" of the government's targets for 11 year olds' achievement, he said.

Speaking earlier on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Mr Woodhead said the strategies were a triumph for the officials who led them and for the teachers who had adopted them "so conscientiously and enthusiastically".

"And they are a triumph for pragmatism over party political conflict, in that the incoming Labour government recognised back in 1997 that these Tory initiatives deserved support and indeed massive expansion," he said.

Consensus

"I think one of the positive developments over certainly the last decade has been an emerging political consensus about the kind of education that we want for our children.

"And that is vitally important because education - a great public service - can get bogged down very dangerously and damagingly in party political infighting."

He said some people were stuck with "the values of the 60s" but by and large both parties and most parents wanted to ensure children left school literate and numerate, having been taught basic values and with an understanding of how "we think about the world".

But his report cautioned that far too many boys are failing to reach the expected level in writing and that they will already be lagging behind by the time they begin secondary school.

In this year's national tests for 11 year olds, only 46% of boys achieve the expected levels in writing, compared with 61% of girls.

Kick-starting literacy

This compares with an overall average of 75% of this age group reaching the expected level for English - a figure brought up by the 83% success rate in reading.

Among the schemes that have been developed to improve boys' writing skills are literacy projects based in football clubs.

These have sought to use the children's interest in football as a way of stimulating a greater interest in literacy and numeracy.

In recognition of the need to raise writing standards, the government has already announced a programme to improve teachers' skills in teaching grammar.

Many of today's teachers were themselves at school when little formal grammar was taught and a teacher training programme to improve grammar was announced in July.

Chris Woodhead leaves office at the end of the month having been advised to take a break before picking up his new role as a consultant and newspaper leader writer.

He said he would be spending the next three months reflecting on his work at Ofsted and writing about it.

He said he did not think he would ally himself with any political party, although it was "premature" to answer that question.