The efforts made to raise academic standards among ethnic minority pupils are "variable", says a report from the education watchdog.

And there were concerns that in some schools support for children who did not speak English as a first language was only "tentative" and "not well enough thought through".

But the study by the Office for Standards in Education of attainment-raising efforts in 39 local education authorities concluded that overall improvements were being made.

Among the recommendations to the government is that it must resource the needs of refugees and asylum-seekers so that funding for others things is not cut.

The report said there were examples of good practice in inner London boroughs, citing Lewisham and Camden in particular.

The successful approaches found by researchers included the hiring of specialist staff and making preparations for the arrival of extra pupils.

And the report said it was important for schools to establish links with parents and the wider community.

Staff shortages

But the report, Managing Support for the Attainment of Pupils from Minority Ethnic Groups, noted that there were difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff.

The report found that the funding system introduced two years ago, the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant, was making a "positive" impact.

This had been introduced to tackle underachievement among ethnic minority pupils and to ensure that children of all backgrounds were not missing out on the national curriculum.

But it also found that grants for traveller children were not making much difference - and said that schools were too dependent on local authority traveller education services.

And it noted that attendance among traveller children remained a cause for concern.

There has been a longstanding concern that children from ethnic minority and asylum seeker families were underperforming at school.

Exam results were seen to be lower and exclusion rates higher - prompting the Department for Education and Ofsted to pay particular attention to raising standards.

But there have been more positive indications, with research published earlier this year showing that black and Indian pupils were improving their exam results at a rate that was three times the average.