John Denham has welcomed Schools Secretary Ed Balls' action to make Southampton City Council produce an action plan for primary schools.  John has sais that the City Council must also act to address weaknesses in secondary schools as well.  Mr Balls' action was taken in responce to new data showing that city primary school results were amongst the worst in the country.

John said, "Just a few years ago city primary schools were performing at the national average level.  The city council has sat back and failed to act as the relative performance of the city primary schools has declined.  Schools across the country have recieved additional investment from the Labour Government - we need to understand why othe schools have been able to improve, but Southampton has not."