Learning mentors are helping to raise standards and promote educational inclusion, according to Ofsted's annual report.

In the report, Ofsted chief inspector David Bell said that learning mentors were succeeding in giving disaffected pupils greater confidence and were promoting more positive attitudes towards education.

Together with other initiatives in schools covered by the Education Action Zone and Excellence in Cities schemes, Bell said learning mentors who worked with individual pupils had helped improve pupils behaviour, but the effect on their achievement was "limited and variable".

The report states that too many schools lack adequate systems for tracking the progress of individual pupils, especially pupils with special educational needs. And although fewer secondary schools were found by Ofsted to have unsatisfactory behaviour overall this year than last, some pupils' behaviour remains a serious concern for many secondary schools.

In special schools for pupils with emotional, behavioural and social difficulties, leadership and management were not as good as in other special schools. These schools often have difficulties recruiting and retaining staff, including senior managers.

But in three-quarters of all special schools pupils' achievement was good or better, and the quality of teaching was good or better in four out of five special schools.

The welfare of pupils was judged unsatisfactory in a quarter of the independent boarding schools inspected.

On early years care and education, Ofsted reports a 4 per cent increase in registered child care providers in the six months to last September. Some 3,500 complaints about registered providers were investigated during the year.

The quality of funded nursery education in private or voluntary sector settings was generally good, though in one in eight nurseries, provision was either unacceptable or required major improvement.