Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has praised academies that “deliberately” teach a limited number of subjects, compared with some maintained schools, yet provide a “very rich curriculum in those subjects” and “an excellent education.”

Ms Spielman was being quizzed by MPs at the Commons Education Select Committee meeting held online yesterday morning.

She denied there was a “direct contradiction” between the new Ofsted school inspection framework in which inspectors will check whether schools still provide a broad range of subjects where key stage 3 has been shortened, and the Department for Education guidance, which does not state a preference for the length of key stage 3 or 4.

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But Ms Spielman said that in some schools the approach had been to “reduce the scope of key stage 3” and bring forward the teaching of GCSE so that “overall children experienced a significant loss of education through five years of secondary education”.

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However, she said other schools had done this yet continued “to get a good curriculum experience through Year 9 and beyond”.

Ms Spielman was asked by Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis, a former teacher: “Would you agree that there are circumstances where a focus on in-depth mastery of a smaller number of subjects is preferential to accessing a broad curriculum?”  

She said: “There are academies which do deliberately teach a - not hugely restricted - but a more limited number of subjects than some community schools, but teach a very rich and full curriculum within those subjects and that can be an absolutely excellent education.”

She pointed out that while academies had “freedom to innovate” when it comes to curriculum, it was part of their funding arrangement that they are tied to the statutory expectation of offering a “broad and balanced curriculum”.