by political editor Paul Francis

Education chiefs insist their efforts to improve standards across the county's schools are on track despite figures showing mixed results from inspections of 80 schools.

A snapshot of the county's schools based on Ofsted inspections since January shows 30 were satisfactory and 12 were inadequate - the two lowest gradings.

Just one was rated as outstanding and a handful were downgraded from good to poor by inspection teams.

On the plus side, 37 schools were graded as good by Ofsted in the first six months of this year, of which 27 were primary and seven were secondary.

A report presented to county councillors acknowledged that there were "still too many schools doing no better than satisfactory and [the snapshot] includes a small number of schools that declined from a previous good judgement."It also said KCC was continuing to address "leadership issues and
significant percentages of often inadequate and barely satisfactory
teaching" and a culture in some of low expectations and low aspirations.

One Conservative county councillor who is a former Kent teacher
described the picture as "demoralising."

Cllr Paulina Stockell told fellow county councillors at a meeting of KCC's education cabinet committee: "It does not make very good reading.

"To get one school out of 80 graded outstanding is quite demoralising. The concern for me is the number of schools that have declined from good to satisfactory."

Opposition Liberal Democrat spokesman Cllr Martin Vye said KCC had taken
its eye off the ball as it dealt with the fallout from a critical report into services for children at risk. "Our eye was off the ball frankly for about three years and we have paid the price. We had a car crash in terms of children's services and we have many more schools in [under-performing] categories than we should have."

But the politician in charge said there was evidence that Kent was turning the corner and KCC's efforts to intervene before schools fell behind were working.

Cllr Mike Whiting (Con), education cabinet member and pictured above, said the authority's interventions in 56 schools identified as at risk of failing meant most had improved.

"Our eye is very much on the ball again. There were 56 schools we
identified as possibly being moved into an Ofsted [failing] category but
none did so.

"Of the 95 primary schools we have that are not meeting the target for Key Stage 2 results, we will have less than 40 on the basis
of draft results."

Ofsted has introduced a new framework for assessing how well schools are performing amid concerns that too many schools are under-achieving.

KCC says that has proved more challenging for schools.

It added the since the report was published, a second Kent school has been rated outstanding by Ofsted.