More than a quarter of Buckinghamshire’s children attend secondary schools that are “inadequate” or “require improvement”, an education watchdog has revealed.

In Ofsted’s annual education, children’s services and skills report, which looks at local authorities across the country inspectors found that 72 per cent of Buckinghamshire children attend “good or outstanding” schools – five per cent less than last year.

Out of 150 local authorities, Buckinghamshire was ranked 94th for the percentage of pupils who attend top level secondary schools.

The four levels that Ofsted inspectors use to judge a school are “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” and “inadequate”.

Education campaign group, Local, Equal and Excellent (LEE) believes that for an affluent area such as Buckinghamshire, 28 per cent of children should not be going to secondary schools deemed as requiring improvement or inadequate.

Katy Simmons, group spokesman, said: “In a week where Bucks was issued with a Direction by the Department for Education to improve its ‘inadequate’ services for vulnerable children, Ofsted has published its annual report on schools, showing that almost a third of Bucks secondary schools are rated by Ofsted as ‘requiring improvement’ or worse.

“These Ofsted figures explode the myth that Bucks secondary system is providing fair and equal opportunities for all local children.

“Local politicians should tell parents honestly why it is that their children's chances of attending a school rated ‘good’ plummet when they get to secondary age. And above all they need to stop pretending that this somehow has nothing to do with selection.

“Bucks' selective system concentrates children with additional needs in particular schools, placing an unfair and unrealistic burden on them. The result is that Bucks, one of the most affluent local authorities in the country, is around the bottom third nationally for school performance and getting worse.

“Many of the other local authorities with similar outcomes are in parts of the country experiencing significant disadvantage.

“This shouldn't be happening in an area like Bucks. Until a fair admissions system is introduced for Bucks secondary schools, we will continue to fail a large number of our children.

“Major change is needed at all levels of the council, to ensure that all local children have a fair chance to be safe and to achieve well in school.”

Buckinghamshire County Council has defended the report’s findings, praising the improvement in primary school education but admitting that there is “room for improvement” in regards to secondary school education.

Aidan Shutter, county council spokesman, said: “It’s great news that 84 per cent of primary pupils attend good or outstanding schools as rated by Ofsted.

“That’s three per cent up on last year and makes us the best performing local authority in the south east.

“Although we’re really pleased with the performance of many Buckinghamshire secondary schools, the report shows there is room for improvement. We are therefore working closely with both maintained and academy schools identified as needing additional support.

“As always, the data is only part of the story. Our school improvement work focuses on securing strong leaders; a greater focus on behaviour, especially low level disruption that wastes teaching time and securing enough governors at each school so that oversight and challenge is a regular feature of the schools’ work.

“The local authority and headteachers are working together to secure the best possible outcomes for all children and young people in Buckinghamshire.”