BRIGHT children are most likely to underachieve in Bury and disadvantaged children are most unlikely to succeed, according to damning document leaked to the Bury Times — which revealed more than one five children are being educated at a school which is inadequate or requires improvement.

A report by the then assistant director of children services, Paul Delbridge-Smith —which is understood not to have been made public — highlights the borough’s falling educational standards over the past decade and plans to make education in Bury one of the country’s best again.

It was handed to the newspaper just weeks after one of Bury’s outstanding schools was classed as failing by Ofsted inspectors.

St Gabriel’s RC High School has been placed into special measures. In January of last year, St Monica’s RC School also went from outstanding to special measures.

The report states that in 2007 the authority was ranked 45th out of 148 for the numbers of young people leaving with five or more good GCSEs including English and maths and was third in Greater Manchester.

But in 2017 it was ranked 141 out of 162 local authorities by Ofsted’s own measures, 21 out of 23 in the North West and below England and North West averages, with 21.6 per cent of pupils attending a school which is is the requires improvement category of is inadequate.

Other findings reported in the document included the lower-than-average number of young people achieving strong passes in English and maths at grade 5-plus.

This stood at 38 per cent, which was up by one per cent on 2017 and five per cent below national average. And one in five GCSE pupils were found to leave school one grade lower than pupils from the same starting point nationally.

The report, published mid-way through the start of the first term of the academic year, stated: “Ofsted performance of secondary schools is a grave concern given the drop in percentage of pupils attending good or better schools.”

It further states: “Disadvantage children are most unlikely to succeed in Bury and most able children are most likely to underachieve in Bury.”

Services were described as “disjoined”.

In the primary sector, 29 per cent of five-years-olds were not ready to learn and move on to Key Stage One, 38 per cent of children were not ready for Key Stage Two — despite the majority of early years settings and primary schools being rated as good or outstanding.

“We must catch children at their first fall,” stated the report.

An action plan to address the fall in standards includes designing a new risk assessment system and a support programme as well regular meetings with schools. It is not known whether the strategies were implemented.

In the job description for a new assistant director of children services, a candidate who can “address issues around falling standards” is being sought.

James Daly, leader of the opposition party at Bury Council, described the report as a “damning indictment of educational standards in this borough”.

He said: “We need the Labour Party to stop wasting taxpayers’ money and ignoring the decline in standards within certain schools in the town.

“As ever, Labour’s normal response when faced with a problem is to bury their heads in the sand and hope it goes away, however this situation is far too serious.

“The Conservatives have repeatedly called for investment in school support services but inexplicably Labour have chosen to prioritise paying huge salaries to senior employees rather than investing in services to benefit local children.”

Leader of the council Rishi Shori said: “The loss of Paul Delbridge-Smith, who certainly invigorated myself and others with his straight-talking style, shows that we need to improve standards in our schools and we want to work proactively with them.”

An interim director of education is in place until the post is filled.