County still has lowest level of good schools in the country, according to Ofsted

New tables show one-in-five schools in the Ofsted region of Yorkshire and the North East are rated as requiring improvement and another three per cent were found to be inadequate.

Overall the figures show the proportion of schools rated good or outstanding nationally is at its highest ever level.

However parents in Yorkshire have consistently been less likely to be able to send their child to a good school than those in any other Government region.

And today’s figures show schools in the region continues to lag behind overall in terms of Ofsted outcomes.

The education watchdog can award schools one of four inspection grades: outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

The latest figures from Ofsted give the overall picture for the region and the country - updated to include the three months of inspections carried out between January and March of this year.

Nationally of the 21,059 schools inspected 20 per cent (4,148) were found to be outstanding, 62 per cent (13,108) were rated as good, 16 per cent (3,345) require improvement and two per cent (458) were found to be inadequate.

This means across England 18 per cent of schools were less than good.

The Ofsted region of Yorkshire and the North East fared worse than the national average and worse than any other region.

Figures show 17 per cent of the 2,151 schools inspected (356) were found to be outstanding, 60 per cent (1,300) were rated as good, 20 per cent (437) were found to require improvement and three per cent (58) were rated as inadequate.

This meant that across Yorkshire and the North East 23 per cent of schools - almost 500- were found to be less than good.

However the picture is slightly better than three months earlier. Figures published up to the end of December last year showed 21 per cent of schools in Yorkshire and the North East required improvement and 16 per cent were outstanding.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan welcomed the national figures which showed record levels of schools being rated as good or outstanding.

She said that were now more than a million more pupils being taught in schools rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding than in 2010 when the coalition Government reforms were first started.

Mrs Morgan added: “This report shows there are record numbers of children in good or outstanding schools, with the proportion of schools reaching this benchmark rising to 82 per cent - the highest level on record.” She said this was a testament to the hard work of teachers, headteachers and governors across the country.

The figures come as Ofsted outlined details of its new inspection framework from this September.

From the start of the next academic year inspections will only visit good schools and colleges once every three years and they will go in with the presumption that the provision is still good. Inspections will only last for a day unless the inspectors feel more evidence is needed to reach a judgement.

The education watchdog will also only go into schools rated as outstanding if there is concern over the school’s results or a complaint, under the latest new framework coming into effect in September.