THE Prime Minister has accused Oxfordshire schools of “coasting” and underperforming compared to the inner cities.

David Cameron, also Witney MP, made the comments in a keynote speech about raising school standards.

But last night headteachers hit back at his comments and invited Mr Cameron to “spend a bit more time” in local schools.

Speaking at a newly launched free school in Norwich yesterday, Mr Cameron said: “It is not just failing schools we need to tackle.

“It is coasting schools too — the ones whose results have either flat-lined, or not improved as much as they could have.”

He said that while more than 70 per cent of pupils in Burlington Danes Academy and Walworth Academy, both in deprived areas of London, got five A* to C grades including English and maths, just 16 state schools across Surrey and Oxfordshire fared better.

He added: “Put another way, more than four out of five state schools in Surrey and Oxfordshire are doing worse than two state schools in relatively deprived parts of inner London. That must be a wake-up call. Why is there this difference? Why are these schools coasting along?”

In this year’s GCSE results, Matthew Arnold School in Cumnor Hill was the only state secondary school in Oxfordshire with more than 70 per cent of its pupils getting five A* to C grades including English and maths.

With the full statistics yet to be compiled, approximately 58 per cent of Oxfordshire state school pupils achieved those grades.

In 2010, Oxford slipped to the bottom 20 local authority districts in the country, with just 45 per cent of city teenagers getting five A* to Cs including English and maths — nine per cent below national average.

The county councillor responsible for school improvement, Melinda Tilley, echoed Mr Cameron’s calls for higher expectations of pupils.

She said: “Oxfordshire should be better than in the middle, which is where we are compared to our benchmark councils, with both secondary and primary schools.

“I want parents to have a proper choice. They do not have a choice if of three schools they list, one is good and the other two are not.”

But headteachers disagreed with the PM’s critcisms.

Didcot Girls’ School head Rachael Warwick, who has worked at six Oxfordshire secondary schools, said: “He needs to spend more time in local schools before making those comments.

“Over the last 12 months, five or six schools got ‘outstanding’ from Ofsted while standards and GCSEs have risen year-on-year.

“Schools have changed massively, and that pre-dates the Coalition Government. Perhaps there was complacency in the past, but he is well out-of-step to level that accusation at Oxfordshire in the current climate.”

And Wheatley Park School headteacher Kate Curtis, who led the school out of special measures earlier this year, said: “There is under-achievement still, but that exists in lots of communities and Oxfordshire headteachers are definitely not complacent about it.”

Mrs Tilley said that since taking on the schools portfolio earlier this year, she had met with other local authorities to discover how they had boosted results.

Strong leadership and high aspirations among staff and pupils were key to success, she said.

She added: “I think there have been attempts to address this, but it is not an easy thing to do because there are so many reasons. There is a lot of good work going on and one of the ways to tackle this is to get the good practice shared.”

Bob Martin, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers union, said: “This is a wake-up call for the Government to give Oxfordshire schools the same funding as inner London. This is one of the poorest funded authorities in the country.

“When there is an equal playing field, it might be appropriate for the Prime Minister to compare.”

CAMERON’S LESSONS FOR SCHOOLS

David Cameron made his first major education speech at the Free School Norwich, one of 24 free schools to open this week.

He used the occasion to call for a return of discipline and to advocate more academies and free schools.

Mr Cameron repeated announcements that modular GCSE exams would end and teachers would be given more powers to impose discipline including searching pupils.

The Government will also investigate cutting benefits of parents whose children play truant.

By 2015, schools will be deemed to be failing if less than 50 per cent of pupils get five A* to C grades, including English and maths, at GCSE.

This year, six Oxfordshire secondary schools fell below that threshold.