South Tyneside schools are success story

Members of South Tynesoide Council’s People Select Committee will be told that Ofsted has rated almost 98 per cent of primary schools and eight out of nine secondary schools in the borough as “good” or “outstanding.”

This combined performance for primary and secondary schools means South Tyneside is currently the eighth best performing local authority nationally out of 163.

Committee chairman, Coun John McCabe, said: “This is excellent news which shows that our concerted efforts to drive up standards in education are paying off. In particular, it is pleasing to see Ofsted acknowledge the role of the Council in this achievement.

“However, we are not complacent and we will continue to rigorously monitor performance to ensure all our young people have the highest quality education they deserve.”

Councillors will also receive an update on the findings of a commission which was set up to investigate how primary health care is planned and delivered in the borough - in particular ways to increase access to GP services for those who really need to be seen.

The latest national GP survey revealed that 78 per cent of South Tyneside residents said their experience of making an appointment was good compared to just 74 per cent nationally.

Coun McCabe added: “However we know of a number of practices where patients have to wait for more than a week for an appointment.

“We aim to come up with some recommendations to help GP practices cope with demand to increase access for those patients for whom the current times are simply unacceptable.”

The committee will meet on Tuesday at 10am at Jarrow Town Hall.