Secondary schools are using an English as an additional language qualification as a way of “gaming” the league tables, a senior Ofsted official said today.

Luke Tryl, director of corporate strategy at Ofsted, told a conference in London: “We were looking at a group of schools recently where the highest proportion of children who had English as a second language was around 20 per cent and yet the minimum entry in any of those schools was around 80 per cent for English as a second language.

“That is pure gaming,” he told delegates at the Nesta Education 2019 conference. “They are entering children for a qualification that don’t need because it boosts league table positions.” 

Quick read: ECDL qualification dropped from 2018 performance tables

Quick read: Ofsted crackdown on schools gaming the system

Quick read: Ofsted closes in on ‘gaming’ schools 

Speaking after the conference, Mr Tryl explained that the inspectorate had been looking at the percentage of pupils entered in 2017 and 2018 for the Cambridge International level 1/ level 2 certificate in English as a second language.

He said that while concerns about inappropriate entries for exams can be raised under the current Ofsted framework, the new framework which is currently out to consultation, is very much about the quality of education separate from exam outcomes.

Ofsted has previously raised concerns about schools gaming the league tables.

Last year, Emma Ing, Ofsted’s regional director for the East Midlands, warned there was an issue of schools entering pupils for inappropriate qualifications in order to boost their scores and that serious questions need to be asked about why “some very obvious differences” can be found in some schools’ Progress 8 scores.

And, in 2017, Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director of education, told inspectors to be aware of schools where pupils who had English as their first language were entered for both GCSE English and iGCSE English as a second language qualifications.

The government has removed the European Computer Driving Licence, which counted as the equivalent of a two-year GCSE, from the list of qualifications included in the 2018 league tables, after fears that schools were using it to game the system.

Critics said the BCS level 2 ECDL certificate in IT application skills could be taught in as little as three days, making it much easier to obtain than two-year GCSE qualifications.