Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman has denied the inspectorate has a bias against schools with a more deprived intake.

Speaking today on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Ms Spielman admitted that schools in disadvantaged areas faced greater challenges. However, she said, educational standards needed to be kept the same across the whole country.

Read: ‘Startling and systematic bias’ in Ofsted ratings

Ofsted: Parents don’t know ‘outstanding’ schools are exempt

Spielman: Top-rated school reports becoming ‘out of date’

Ms Spielman said: “We could never say that this education is good enough for a child in Grimsby but wouldn’t be good enough for a child in Notting Hill - we have to keep that same standard and I think if you talk to parents everywhere, they have the same kinds of expectations.

“No parent would say that because we live here, it’s ok that we should get a lesser standard of education.”

The Ofsted chief was responding to a comment by shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, put to Ms Spielman by Ridge, that “Ofsted measures poverty. It measures deprivation. It doesn’t measure excellence.”

Ms Spielman said there were “enormous challenges” in making sure the education system delivered the same quality of education everywhere.

She had previously aimed to make Ofsted’s new inspection regime fairer to deprived schools. Despite this, the inspectorate conceded in December that schools in less-well-off communities were less likely to be rated “good” than those in wealthier areas.