SECONDARY schools failing to make the grade are being supported by the local authority to raise standards.

Education bosses say they accept that standards are too low in some of Bolton’s schools following the publication of the ‘league tables’ last week.

Figures showed that Bolton was in the 20 ‘worst’ authorities for the number of secondary schools which were under-performing by being below the Government’s floor standards — with 22.2 per cent of schools failing to meet the minimum threshold.

Rivington and Blackrod High School in Horwich, Harper Green School in Farnworth, Bolton St Catherine’s Academy in Harwood and Kearsley Academy were among just 365 state-funded mainstream high schools in England that did not meet the Government’s floor standard for performance in 2017.

Pupils made ‘well below average’ progress at those schools as measured by how far pupils have come from leaving primary school compared to pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Year Six in primary school.

Bolton Council say the are supporting the schools which also have access to additional support to help them improve.

A Bolton Council spokesman said: “We accept the need for improvement in standards in some of the borough’s schools and accept that the Regional Schools Commissioner has direct responsibility for taking action with underperforming academies, however, the local authority is actively engaged in helping their respective trusts to raise standards.”

He added: “Each of the four academies not reaching Government floor standards is a member of the Bolton Learning Alliance and has access to additional support from other schools and school improvement experts.”

Bolton St Catherine’s Academy was formed in 2009 to replace the poorly performing Withins School in Breightmet shut down to raise standards.

Kearsley Academy opened on the site of George Tomlinson School the year after in a bid to raise standards.

And both were taken out of local authority control and put into the hands of sponsors. Kearsley Academy is run by Northern Education and Bolton St Catherine’s will become part of the Bishop Fraser Trust, which is also made up of Canon Slade School and St James’ CE High School in Farnworth which are two of the borough’s best performing schools.

Harper Green School and Rivington and Blackrod School converted into state-funded independent schools last March under the Leverhulme Academy Church of England and Community Trust.

Senior leaders in each of the schools say they working hard to achieve high standards.

A department for education spokesman said: "There is no automatic consequence to being below the floor or coasting. Where a school has fallen below these standards for the first time in 2017, the data will be a starting point for a conversation about school improvement. Where schools are below the floor standard, Regional School Commissioners will work with them, taking the school’s wider context into account, to ensure they have the support they need to improve.”