PRIVATE schools spoon-feed their pupils to such an extent that they risk destroying individuality and creativity, according to the director of the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

In his first-ever annual review, Tony Hubbard warns that spoonfeeding works against all that the British private school has traditionally been good at:

“turning out young people able to be inventive, creative, independent-minded, even awkward.”

And he told The TES: “There is a great deal of pressure to teach pupils to jump through hoops.”

His report covers both junior and senior schools and is based on inspections that took place during 20001. It highlights the high standards attained in the schools, which are all members of the Independent Schools Council, and says: “Given the advantages of many pupils in the sector, they should be.

“In all the schools taken together, standards are judged to be very good or better in about a quarter of all the schools and good in about two-thirds. Pupils were found to be underachieving overall in some 2 per cent only.”

The figures compare favourably to those in state schools inspected by the Office for Standards in Education. OFSTED found that pupil achievement was excellent or very good in only 13 per cent of state primaries. Nearly half were good, while 30 per cent were satisfactory. Eight per cent were judged unsatisfactory.

The picture is similar in state secondary schools, with 15 per cent very good or better for pupil achievement and 7 per cent poor.

However, management and leadership were weaker in private schools than in the state sector.

The report says that management is good or excellent in more than a quarter of the independent schools inspected and unsatisfactory in one-tenth. OFSTED statistics show that in maintained schools, the leadership and management of the headteacher and key staff are very good or excellent in some 40 per cent of schools and unsatisfactory in about 5 per cent.

The ISI report says the problems are at the level of middle management, “often because schools are less good at co-ordinating policies across schools and departments than they are at carrying out their prime functions”.

But Mr Hubbard said OFSTED and ISI figures were not directly comparable. “We are dealing with a different bunch of inspectors with different descriptors,” he said.

Particular strengths of ISC schools include personal development of pupils, extra-curricular activities and foreign languages. But improvements are needed in the assessment of pupils and the use of libraries, while support for pupils with special needs was not consistent in mainstream lessons.

Report at www.isinspect.org.uk OFSTED’s new regime, 29