If it had not been for a slightly more momentous event on the same day, chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw might have stolen a few more headlines last Thursday for the latest in a series of valedictory speeches on the state of education.

Speaking at the Festival of Education at Wellington College, he banged the drum about the “appalling injustice” of children from poorer homes still falling behind their more affluent peers’ attainment.

The gap between the percentage of pupils who do and do not receive free school meals gaining five A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and maths, was 28 percentage points in 2005. It is still 28 percentage points today. Worse still, in affluent areas it is even higher: in Reading, for instance, it is 40 percentage points.

Home truths

I must confess that, on reading his speech, I wondered if we would still continue to receive these home truths when he has gone. (Last Thursday, he blamed “feckless parents” for allowing their children to bend school rules and praised testing as a way out of poverty of achievement for the disadvantaged.)

I hope we will. Sir Michael is never shy of criticising the audience that has invited him to speak - witness the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference a couple of years ago, when he reduced one eminent headteacher to swearing after giving the conference a homily on how they should be doing more to help state schools in their area.

Sometimes he may have gone over the top in concentrating on criticism and neglecting the positive - although if you go through his speeches with a fine toothcomb, he does acknowledge the strides forward made by state education.

One of the most refreshing things about his reign is that he confounded critics who thought he would be a stooge of former education secretary Michael Gove when he first took office. He has done sterling (actually, that may not be a good word to use this week!) work in pointing out the shortcomings of academy chains and free schools, as well as those still with local authorities - a factor that irritated Mr Gove during his latter years in post.

His masterstroke came when - forbidden by legislation from carrying out inspections of academy chains - he simply inspected all the schools in chains to get an idea of how they were functioning.

Continued scrutiny

Obviously, it is too early to mount any criticism of the government’s choice of his successor, Amanda Spielman, who has been with exams regulator Ofqual for several years and has connections to the Ark academy chain.

Let me first say that I don’t believe a connection with an academy chain should be held against her. It would be just as foolish to say she should be barred were she to have held some post with a local authority, like Sir Michael’s predecessors David Bell and Christine Gilbert.

I do believe her expertise may lie more in the day-to-day administration of the organisation - not necessarily a bad thing and something that I suspect was not top of Sir Michael’s bucket list - than continuing with state-of-the-nation missives on education. It would be sad if that level of scrutiny was lost.

Meanwhile, let us await further valedictory messages from Sir Michael, including his final annual report, with interest. There has been plenty of food for thought in what we have received so far.

Lofty ambitions

Those of you who have been worrying that we might lose Nicky Morgan as education secretary because of her lofty ambition to become leader of the Conservative party and prime minister: fret not. I spotted a YouGov poll last week on all the potential candidates. She was the only one to register nought per cent from Conservative voters asked about the voting options. She has, it seems, quite a mountain to climb.

Richard Garner was education editor of The Independent for 12 years and has been writing about education for more than three decades

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