Ofsted annual report and stuck schools

Ofsted's annual report for 2018, published in December, highlighted the following:

• The early years sector remains strong, with 95% of providers judged good or outstanding compared with 74% six years ago.
• Eighty-six per cent of schools were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. However, around 490 schools have been ‘stuck’ in a cycle of poor performance since 2005.
• Sixty-nine per cent of all non-association independent schools are currently judged good or outstanding. Although broadly the same as last year, this is a decline from August 2015.
• Seventy-six per cent of all general further education (FE) colleges are currently judged good or outstanding – a big improvement from last year.
• The number of local authorities (LAs) judged good or outstanding for their social care continues to rise,while two thirds of LAs that were once judged inadequate have improved at re-inspection.

FFT looked at those 490 stuck schools and noted:

• Those in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber tended to be more likely to become stuck (or closed).
• At the time of their first s5 inspection, ‘stuck’ schools tended to have greater proportions of white British, FSM-eligible pupils, and had lower average attainment on entry than schools which subsequently became good.

More generally, FFT noted that it took 300 weeks, or more than six years, to get half of the schools rated satisfactory to good, and a further 100 weeks to get half of those rated inadequate to good.

Which is all really to say that schools with disadvantaged, low-attaining cohorts find it more difficult to improve. However, while this might be stating the obvious, the full Ofsted report is essential reading if you're interested in the details of how to drive school improvement.

Read more on Schoolzone's Education policy and Ofsted channel