Report says more needs doing to improve the transition from primary school

There was better quality teaching and pupils had better attitudes to work.

Attainment was improving - but unevenly, and more needed doing to address "persistent weaknesses" in assessing children's progress.

Catch-up classes for many children who had struggled at primary school were often failing to have the desired effect, said the inspectorate, Ofsted.

The Chief Inspector, David Bell, said schools should be applauded for successfully implementing key aspects of the strategy effectively.

"It is particularly pleasing to note that improvements in subject teaching have been maintained, and that this is having a positive effect on pupils' attitudes and aspects of their work.

"But the drive for improvement needs to be kept up," he said - and there was still "much to do".

The aim of the strategy is to raise standards among 11 to 14 year olds by improving teaching and learning, developing cross-curricular skills - such as literacy and numeracy - and helping pupils who start with below-average attainment to make faster progress.

Ofsted noted that national test results improved in English, maths and science last year as more 14 year olds reached the level expected for their age, even though they had not had the full benefit of the strategy for their three years in secondary school.

'Long way to go'

Its report said teachers were "enthused" by developments and welcomed the extra training and support they were being given.

Teaching was better, in turn leading to better attitudes to work, especially, but not only, among boys.

"The strategy is focusing on persistent weaknesses in assessment and prompting better practice, but there is a long way to go.

Systematic, rigorous and productive attention to the strengths and weaknesses of pupils' work "remains the exception rather than the rule".

'Weakness'

Catch-up programmes had been introduced to help pupils who had not reached the expected level for their age by the time they finished primary school - such as summer schools in literacy and numeracy.

"The organisation and teaching of catch-up programmes continue to be weak," Ofsted said.

Teaching was unsatisfactory or poor in a third of schools and more than half the pupils involved had still not reached the expected primary school level by the end of their first year in secondary school.

Some aspects of the transition from primary to secondary schools were done well by most schools.

But overall this remained a weakness - "unsatisfactory" in almost half the schools visited.

"There is still much to do to enable more pupils to make appropriate progress from the start of their secondary education," Ofsted said.

'Not working'

The School Standards Minister, David Miliband, said the government was now addressing Ofsted's concerns.

"The priority now is to build on the significant progress we have already made and translate this into even greater gains," he said.

But Conservative spokesman Tim Yeo said the report was "just another example, if proof were needed, that Labour isn't working".

"Despite spending hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers hard earned money, Labour is still leaving thousands of children behind," he said.

He promised that a Conservative government would scrap the "arbitrary national targets" which Labour had set but failed to meet.

The leader of the NASUWT classroom union, Eamonn O'Kane, noted "with concern" that the report's recommendations could encourage "even more monitoring of teachers and a further increase in bureaucratically burdensome assessment procedures".