COMPLACENT headteachers in weak schools have not woken up to pupils’ under-performance, the officer responsible for Oxfordshire’s schools has said.

Jan Paine, who leaves her deputy director post at Oxfordshire County Council at the end of the year, said the council had not been “robust” enough with some heads who did not take responsibility for poor results.

She was outlining the scale of the challenge facing Oxfordshire’s schools at a County Hall scrutiny committee last week.

The 2011 attainment results show only Oxfordshire’s five-year-olds outperform youngsters in other local authority areas with similar demographics to Oxfordshire.

Seven- and 11-year-olds’ attainment is below levels set by the county’s statistical neighbours, and GCSE and A-Level results this year slipped below the national average.

At Key Stage Two, Oxfordshire’s schools posted results five percentage points below the county’s target, and GCSE results fell for the first time in five years in 2011.

One secondary school, Oxford Academy, and 20 primaries posted results below the Government’s minimum or “floor” attainment targets.

Under-performance is most marked among the most deprived pupils.

At Key Stage One, the county’s seven-year-olds receiving free school meals are already 19 percentage points adrift of their peers in reading and writing, and 11 short in maths.

Aged 11, the gap has risen to 27 percentage points, and by the time free school meal recipients sit their GCSEs, just 26 per cent achieve five good GCSEs, including English and maths, compared to 59 per cent of their classmates.

Ms Paine told councillors: “If you are not doing well at Key Stage One, it knocks on all the way through.

“We need to get it right at the beginning. We know free school meal children are not doing as well as they should.”

She put the spotlight on some headteachers who she said had not woken up to their schools’ shortcomings.

She said: “When I have called in headteachers to talk about their results, I have been struck by the difference in attitudes of headteachers and their view of whether they know how to fix it, or even whether they think they should fix it, and whether they think the problem is in their control or it is the children.

“I am not sure we have had sufficiently robust conversations as we should have, or as soon as we should.”

She added: “One of the massive differences is between one or two headteachers who have been with us quite a long time and their schools have not improved, compared with new headteachers who come in with a can-do attitude, a plan in place already, and who are willing to talk it up with high expections.”