Less than a quarter of the “outstanding” schools inspected by Ofsted in the first term of this school year kept their top grade, new figures reveal.

The inspectorate said today that just 23 per cent of the 117 schools it had inspected from 1 September to 31 December retained their “outstanding” judgement.

“Outstanding” schools are exempt from routine re-inspection but Ofsted has asked the Department for Education to remove this.

Last year schools minister Nick Gibb told Ofsted to inspect at least one in 10 “outstanding” schools amid concerns that the current exemption is not giving parents the assurance they need.

“Outstanding” schools have been exempt from re-inspection since 2012.

However, Ofsted can go in if it has concerns over standards or safeguarding.

Last year the inspectorate warned the government that the situation was unsustainable after a National Audit Office report found that 1,620 schools had not been inspected for six years or more, including 296 schools that had not been inspected for 10 years.

The new Ofsted data published today shows the outcomes of school inspections between September and December 2018.

At the end 2018, Ofsted had judged 85 per cent of schools “good” or “outstanding” at their most recent inspection, down slightly on 86 per cent in August 2018 and 87 per cent in August 2017.

The number of inspections of schools previously judged to require improvement has decreased since 2014-15 and 2015-16. This year 58 per cent of these schools improved compared with 71 per cent in 2015-16.

The DfE has hailed the increase in the proportion of “good” and “outstanding” schools since 2010.

A DfE spokesperson said: “As these statistics show, standards in our schools have risen significantly since 2010 - with 85 per cent judged to be “good” or “outstanding” compared to only 68 per cent in 2010.

“On top of this, 163,000 more six-year-olds are now on track to be fluent readers than in 2012, we have seen the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers reduce across all stages of education and our new, more rigorous curriculum is giving our young people the skills and knowledge they need to go on and get a good job or continue their education at college or university.”