London secondary schools are more than twice as likely to have been rated as consistently “good” or better by Ofsted over the past 15 years than those in the North East of England, new research shows.
Analysis looking at all of the watchdog’s school standards reports since the start of the 2005-2006 academic year finds that half of secondary schools in London have been judged “good” or better in all their inspections, compared to just 23 per cent in the North East.
The FFT Education Datalab research also shows that 44 per cent of primary schools in London and 43 per cent in the North West have always been judged “good” or better.
This compares to 28 per cent of primary schools in the West Midlands and 32 per cent in the East Midlands.
The study also found a strong association between the results of Ofsted inspections and measures of disadvantage. More than two thirds (68 per cent) of schools in the least deprived fifth of secondary schools have always been rated “good” or better, compared with 15 per cent of schools in the most deprived fifth.
FFT Education Datalab has concluded that, despite changes to the inspection framework over the years, schools with the least disadvantaged intakes tend to be more likely to have always been judged “good” or better.
The organisation looked at Ofsted reports from 2005-06 until the end of January 2022 to inform its analysis.
It then divided schools into categories, based on their results, with these categories being “never good”, “mostly less than good”, “mostly good”, “always good”, or “always outstanding”.
It acknowledged that, as part of the research, “outstanding” schools were exempt from routine inspection in 2010 until last term, so there are a number of schools in the “always outstanding” category that have not been inspected for many years.
In order to assess the deprivation of schools, it used the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals in January 2021.
Discussing the results in a blog on its website, FFT Education Datalab acknowledged that questions about the fairness of inspection outcomes for schools with disadvantaged intakes “are not new”.
But it added: “It does seem to be the case that, despite the changes to the inspection framework over the years, schools with the least disadvantaged intakes tend to be more likely to have always been judged ‘good’ or better.”
Commenting on the findings, Schools North East, a regional led schools network covering the North East of England, said historic Ofsted data had not always taken into account the impact of context on educational attainment.
‘Context must not be confused with competence’
It added that the context for many schools in the North, especially the North East, was one of “high-impact, long-term deprivation”.
Chris Zarraga, director of Schools North East, said: “Schools in areas of high impact, long-term deprivation require much greater support to ensure that their students can achieve their full potential. Context must not be confused with competence.
“By labelling our schools as underperforming, without considering the characteristics of their pupils, ensures that the education debate focuses on ‘red herrings’ rather than viable solutions to the serious issues many of our communities face.”
Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said that current accountability arrangements are not working as well as they should, which was “strong evidence” to suggest that schools serving the most deprived communities are “at a disadvantage when it comes to inspection”.
He added: “For the small proportion of schools that are struggling, simply reinspecting them time and again has not worked. Instead, we need a much stronger focus on support, not sanction.
“For the vast majority of schools in this country, that are neither failing nor struggling, it is time to look again at developing a more proportionate approach to accountability, if we are to create the conditions in which schools can thrive and pupils succeed.”
Ofsted has previously addressed questions about the fairness of its judgements in a 2018 blog, in which it said it “strongly refutes any accusation of systematic bias” in its judgements.
Ofsted has been contacted for comment.
