Ofsted demands no excuses as it tackles falling literacy rate

Sir Michael Wilshaw said progress had stalled and one in five children did not achieve the expected literacy levels by the end of primary school, leaving them ill-equipped to gain basic exam results at secondary school.

The stark warning came only weeks after it was confirmed the education watchdog was making it harder for schools to receive the top rating from inspectors and it was abolishing its “satisfactory” category to crack down on mediocre and coasting schools.

It follows damning league tables which revealed one in five of the very worst-performing schools at GCSE in the country is in Yorkshire. The data, published in January, showed that 25 secondaries in the region could be at risk of Government intervention after missing GCSE targets.

Ministers expect every school to get at least 35 per cent of students to achieve five A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and maths. An Ofsted report says standards in English are not high enough and there has been no overall improvement in primary pupils’ learning since 2008.

Sir Michael said: “There can be no more important subject than English. It is at the heart of our culture and literacy skills are crucial to pupils’ learning for all subjects.

“Yet too many pupils fall behind in their literacy early on. In most cases, if they can’t read securely at seven they struggle to catch up as they progress through their school careers. As a result, too many young adults lack the functional skills to make their way in the modern world. Good leadership is the key to good literacy in schools. Above all, this means being passionate about high standards of literacy for every single pupil, and creating a no-excuses culture both for pupils and for staff.”

Sir Michael said even achieving the benchmark at the end of primary school was no guarantee of success; last year, 45 per cent of pupils who achieved the lower end of Level 4 at age 11 did not attain a Grade C in GCSE English.

Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ general secretary Mary Bousted said Ofsted changed its inspection regime only six weeks after the last one was introduced. “With such fast-moving goalposts, schools don’t know which way to look.”

Comment: Page 12.