SWINDON'S local education authority will undergo the same rigorous inspection as its schools next year when a team of Ofsted officials come to town.

It is one of 16 in the country which will be visited in the second wave of inspections to take place in the UK.

Education officials insist Swindon's LEA has nothing to fear from the review and say they are looking forward to seeing its findings.

But others believe it may face some criticism on serious education issues affecting the town.

The most prominent of these is Swindon's GCSE results which have fallen badly this year.

There is now a five per cent gap between the town's results and the national average, putting Swindon 88th out of the 150 local authorities in England.

The figures also come in addition to a poor set of national test results for 11-year-olds and a number of bad Ofsted reports at schools in the borough.

Churchfields School in Old Walcot and St Luke's Special School, Cricklade Road, both failed an inspection a year ago.

In February, it was announced two headteachers were to be recruited for a year by Swindon Council to help raise standards.

Swindon's Conservatives hope the Ofsted inspection will address some of these problems.

Its leader, Coun Mike Bawden, said: "One of the fundamental questions we would like the inspection to answer is why Swindon schools perform lower than the average for GCSE results for 15-year-olds.

"Swindon LEA should be worried about this because it is one of the critical points on which students leave schools and present themselves for further education or jobs."

But Mike Lusty, director of education, said he believes the inspection will show Swindon's LEA is helping to improve schools and support teachers.

"What we are doing in Swindon is moving in the right direction and we have a lot to celebrate," he said.

"I welcome the inspection as an opportunity to complement our own self evaluation that is taking place within the LEA and I believe there will be much that is good that will be recognised.

"I hope it will bear out the support that we do provide for our schools but there will always be areas in which we can improve and we will welcome guidance on that."

Colin Green, chairman of the Swindon Association of Primary Headteachers, said: "I would imagine Ofsted inspections just like school ones take context into account.

"Every single school has its own difficulties and issues but I am not accepting that as an authority the schools are bad and we are a bad authority.

"What is important is that officers, the council and their members already have a clear vision of what Swindon is like, how we are performing and the way forward. Ofsted will reflect on that and give direction."