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News support feature: Annual Report focus on schools

Associated resources

Looking at the most recent inspection judgement for all schools in England, 70% of schools are delivering a good or better standard of education, but the quality of teaching in our schools is still too variable, according to Ofsted’s latest Annual Report published on 22 November.

The Annual Report of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills 2010/11 provides a detailed summary of the findings from Ofsted’s work between September 2010 and August 2011. It draws on evidence throughout the year of inspection and regulation by Ofsted, including findings and trends in childcare, children’s social care, schools and education and skills provision for learners of all ages.

Of more than 31,000 inspections that Ofsted carried out across all the sectors in 2010/11, nearly 6,000 inspections were of schools maintained by the state and 314 were of independent schools. Evidence found that a third of all schools inspected during the last year had improved their performance compared with their previous inspection and nearly half maintained their performance, but almost a fifth has declined. Although teaching has been judged to be inadequate this year in just 3% of schools, it is a serious concern that teaching in over 40% of primary and secondary schools is no better than satisfactory and is outstanding in around 4%.

Teaching still a concern
Most schools are orderly, well-managed places where pupils feel safe and behaviour is generally good or outstanding. Overall, parents remain very positive about the quality of education that their children receive. An analysis of 315,182 parental questionnaires returned from 3,679 inspections shows that 94% of the parents who responded were generally positive about their children’s schooling. These results are consistent with the previous year, when 93% expressed a positive opinion.

Different types of schools
Secondary schools are still more likely to be judged inadequate than any other type of school. However, compared to last year, a lower proportion of secondary schools have been judged to be inadequate. Of the 75 academies inspected this year, 40 were judged to be providing a good or outstanding education for their pupils and five were inadequate. As in previous years a high proportion of nursery schools are judged outstanding or good. Although only 2% of sixth forms are judged inadequate, a large percentage of provision is only satisfactory. Special schools and pupil referral units performed well overall, with around three quarters being judged good and outstanding. Almost all initial teacher education inspected by Ofsted has been judged to be good or outstanding.

The Annual Report also concludes that a school serving families in more deprived areas is four times more likely to be inadequate than a school serving families in more affluent areas. However, we also found 85 schools to be outstanding this year amongst the schools serving pupils in the most disadvantaged areas. Almost all of these schools are in urban areas and over a third are in London.

Faster improvement
The Report highlights that schools that had been judged inadequate and were made subject to special measures or given a notice to improve, improved faster than last year and over a fifth of them made better progress with a rating of good rather than satisfactory. This year, fewer schools were placed in these categories. However, nearly 800 schools inspected this year have been judged satisfactory for at least their last two inspections and are struggling to improve.

New inspection framework and online parent questionnaire
Ofsted will be making changes to the way it inspects schools from January 2012 to aim for a bigger impact on school improvement. It has also recently launched a new online questionnaire called Parent View, which allows parents to rate their child’s school on a range of issues.

Independent schools
There are around 2,400 independent schools in England. Ofsted inspects the education provision in less than half of these schools, which are not members of independent schools associations. The education provision of the rest is inspected by independent inspectorates. Ofsted inspects the welfare of boarders and residential pupils in all maintained and independent boarding and residential special schools. Inspectors found that in over two thirds of non-association independent schools pupils make good progress. This is particularly as a result of effective teachers who know their subject well. The proportion of schools that make at least good provision for pupils’ welfare, health and safety has increased this year. However, in nearly one school in eight, inspectors found some aspects of arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils to be inadequate.
 

Links to the Annual Report 2010/11, accompanying videos and the draft school inspection framework are listed as associated resources below.

To visit the Parent View website, where you can register and submit your views on your child’s school, visit: www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk.

Associated resources

• The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills 2010/11
• Miriam Rosen introduces the Ofsted Annual Report 2010/11
• Ofsted Annual Report 2010/11: Jean Humphrys introduces education and early years highlights
• The framework for school inspection from January 2012: an introduction

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