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The proportion of good or outstanding schools has risen this year and four other facts revealed by Ofsted today
Primary schools continue to perform more strongly than secondary schools and warnings continue over the North/South educational divide, new figures from the inspectorate show
The number of good or outstanding schools has continued to increase - with 86 per cent of schools making the grade, according to the latest data from Ofsted.
The statistics published today show that at their most recent inspection, 21 per cent of all schools were outstanding and 65 per cent of schools were good on 31 March 2016.
The figure is a rise from 82 per cent of schools being rated as good or outstanding in March 2015.
In the data released today, Ofsted also reveals:
- The “stark difference” between the quality of secondary schools in the North and Midlands and the South and East. The inspectorate found that 70 per cent of secondary schools in the North and Midlands were good or outstanding at their most recent inspection compared to 81 per cent in the South and East.
- There are 24 local authorities where less than 60 per cent of secondary schools were judged to be good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. Seventeen of these are in the North and Midlands and seven are in the South and East.
- By the end of March 2016, 75 per cent of primary schools which required improvement had improved at their next inspection, compared to 52 per cent of secondary schools.
- Of the 67 inadequate local authority schools that have closed this academic year, 60 closed to become academies. This means there are fewer inadequate local authority schools.
Commenting on today’s statistics, Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of Ofsted, said he had raised serious concerns about the North /South divide in school quality last year - and the new statistics revealed nothing had changed.
He said: “As things stand, far too many children are being let down by the system when they reach the age of 11, simply because of where they live.
“The nation should be worried. Our future prosperity depends on this generation of young people receiving a good education.”
The Department for Education said that the figures revealed a record number of children in schools rated good or outstanding.
“In our recent white paper we set out plans to tackle areas of underperformance to ensure no child is disadvantaged just because of where they live,” said education secretary Nicky Morgan.
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