TOP-CLASS Bury has done it again with a glowing Ofsted report for its education department.

The Local Education Authority (LEA), which runs all state schools in the borough, has been given a top-ranking Three-Star rating after a comprehensive assessment by experts.

And, acknowledging that the LEA had jumped from a two-star performance in a similar report last year, the independent inspection team said: "This is a good, improving LEA."

With overall judgement grades on progress, capacity for improvement and effectiveness of the LEA all being judged "good", the inspection team reported that: "The education service continues to be an effective organisation".

Bury Metro's head of lifelong learning, Councillor Steve Perkins, commented: "Our schools and education authority are held in awe by many other councils across the country and this latest Ofsted report highlights just another reason why.

"Despite our high levels of attainment in the past we have not been complacent and I think that is shown by this significant jump in our CPA rating. Even now we are still looking at ways in which we can improve and we will be listening carefully to what the inspectors had to say in order to make sure that we reach the high levels we set ourselves.

"My congratulations go out to all the staff who have made this possible and, on behalf of the people of Bury, I just want to say thank you for a great job, well done."

Particular strengths identified by the inspectors included:

Formulation and implementation of school improvement strategy;

Strategy for social inclusion;

Allocation of resources to priorities;

Support for primary literacy and numeracy strategies;

Monitoring, challenge and intervention in schools;

Support for schools causing concern;

Support for school leadership, management and governors;

Support for early years.

The inspectors, noting that pupils in Bury schools achieve standards above the national averages at all key stages, added: "The education service continues to be an effective organisation. It is very well led, has a distinctive ethos and clear principles and has developed very good relationships with its schools and other partners.

"The quality of planning is good and monitoring and evaluation are strengths of this LEA. The quality of data produced is excellent. This underpins the LEA's strategy to develop self-evaluating schools and is a model of good practice.

"Since the last inspection, the LEA has improved its support for social inclusion and for raising the attainment of pupils with special educational needs."

The LEA has also vigorously tackled the issue of surplus places arising from the change in the age distribution. Elected members are committed and have demonstrated that they are prepared to tackle difficult decisions such as school closures."

Accepting that Bury is still one of the lowest-funded education authorities in the country -- something the council is fighting to have addressed -- the inspectors went on: "The LEA makes good use of its relatively limited resources, which are well targeted on priorities and pupils' attainment is high, despite the low funding."