Schools failing 
district’s pupils 
face crackdown

The education watchdog’s new regional boss has questioned why more than a third of schools in the East Riding have been rated less than good in their inspections.

Teams will carry out around 15 school inspections in the area this week and will also assess the support provided to them by the council – which has welcomed Ofsted’s decision to carry out these visits.

It is the latest in a series of co-ordinated week-long inspections to areas where school standards are causing concern.

During the week Ofsted will also conduct a telephone survey of a number of East Riding’s schools, which are not being inspected.

The decision to launch targeted inspections across the country was announced by Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw at this year’s North of England Education conference in Sheffield.

Ofsted has warned that it is unacceptable for there to be stark differences in a parent’s chances of sending their child to a school in similar authorities.

Figures show that 35 per cent of schools in the East Riding have been rated less than good by inspection teams in the past.

This is worse than national and Yorkshire averages and lower than the ten local authority areas elsewhere in the country which Ofsted considers to be similar to the East Riding.

Ofsted’s new regional director for Yorkshire and the North East Nick Hudson said: “Every parent wants their child to go to a good or better school. The profile of Ofsted judgements for schools in the East Riding of Yorkshire is disappointing. It shows 35 per cent of schools are less than good, which is more than the average for England which is 23 per cent, the region which is 24 per cent, and all ten of its local authority demographic equivalents.

“It cannot be right that local authorities with the same demographics in terms of population size and levels of deprivation have such varying levels of provision in schools. All parents should have the same chance of sending their children to a good or better school but in East Riding the chance of being able to do so is much lower than in other parts of the country.

“That is why we are carrying out focused school inspections in East Riding and other under-performing areas looking both at the schools’ performance but also the support they receive from their local authority.”

Mike Furbank, East Riding Council’s head of achievement and inclusion, said: “We welcome Ofsted’s co-ordinated inspections in the East Riding over the next week.

“The council has always been determined to help school leaders improve their schools and is currently undertaking a scrutiny review to better understand how to improve their Ofsted ratings.

“Ofsted’s Nick Hudson has been invited to contribute to this review.

“Previous Ofsted inspections have found that the council provides good support for schools through the school improvement service.

“We are clear that while schools are responsible for their own improvement, the council is committed to working with them to both support and challenge them in improvement.”

According to Ofsted the authorities with a similar demographic profile to the East Riding include North Yorkshire where 22 per cent of schools are less than good, Derbyshire and Warrington where the figure is 25 per cent Nottinghamshire where the figure is 20 per cent and Leicestershire where it is just 16 per cent.

Ofsted inspectors can give schools one of four ratings after an inspection visit. Before this academic year the four categories were: outstanding; good; satisfactory and inadequate.

Satisfactory has now been replaced with a new category ‘requires improvement’ as part of an Ofsted drive to show that only good is deemed good enough.

Ofsted announced it was visiting East Riding yesterday as it also confirmed it would now be routinely inspecting council’s school improvement services in future.

From this month inspectors will be assessing how well local authorities carry out their statutory duties in promoting high standards in schools and among other providers.

Local authorities will receive up to five days’ notice of an inspection. Ofsted will not use a four-point grading scale for judging the effectiveness of local authority school improvement services. Instead strengths and weaknesses will be evaluated in a summary judgement.

Announcing the new inspections Sir Michael said: “This framework will act as a powerful lever for improvement in helping to challenge inconsistencies and will enable Ofsted to report more rigorously on the contribution of local authorities to improving education in England.

“Inspection will not be universal. We will inspect only where concerns about performance are apparent or where requested to do so by the Secretary of State.

“Where inspections are undertaken they will report on the effectiveness, or otherwise, of the local authority functions for promoting improvement in relation to education. We believe this will help local authorities to improve their own performance.”