A message from Patrick Leeson:
28 June 2016 weekly update
28 June 2016
This week, Patrick summarises the current position on the quality of education in Kent schools as reflected in the most recent Ofsted inspection judgements.
Dear Colleagues
Ofsted Update 87% of Schools now Good or Outstanding
As we come to the end of the school year I would like to summarise the current position on the quality of education in Kent schools as reflected in the most recent Ofsted inspection judgements.
Overall, the latest Ofsted data for Kent shows that 87.4% of schools are rated good or outstanding compared to 84% nationally. This includes 20% of schools judged to be outstanding and 67% judged to be good.
This includes 84% of Secondary schools, 88% of Primary schools, 91% of Special schools and 86% of PRUs in Kent, judged to be good or outstanding. Also, 94% of Early Years settings are good or outstanding.
In Kent, there are now 367 good and 111 outstanding schools, 64 schools requiring improvement (including 47 Primary schools and 14 Secondary schools) and 5 schools in a category of concern, out of a total of 547 schools that have a current inspection result.
In July 2015, the percentage of good and outstanding schools was 82%, compared to 75% in 2014, 68% at the same time in 2013, 59% in 2012 and 55% in 2011.
Of the 56 schools inspected so far this school year 70% were judged to be good or outstanding, compared to 72% in 2014-15, which sustains the rate of improvement.
The greatest improvement is in Primary Schools, where 72% of the 46 schools inspected since last September have been judged good or outstanding. In the same period 10 Secondary schools have been inspected and 60% were judged good or outstanding.
While the improvement rate overall in Primary Schools is good (see table below), especially in Canterbury, Shepway and Tonbridge and Malling, there is still significant variation between districts. The 2015 figures are shown in brackets.
| District | Outstanding | Good | Requires Improvement | Inadequate | Total Good Outstanding | % Good Outstanding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashford | 4 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 37 | 97 (92) |
| Canterbury | 7 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 31 | 94 (79) |
| Dartford | 1 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 87 (84) |
| Dover | 6 | 31 | 2 | 0 | 37 | 95 (95) |
| Gravesham | 2 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 16 | 70 (62) |
| Maidstone | 8 | 26 | 8 | 1 | 34 | 79 (72) |
| Sevenoaks | 8 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 39 | 93 (86) |
| Shepway | 8 | 20 | 2 | 1 | 28 | 90 (78) |
| Swale | 6 | 34 | 5 | 0 | 40 | 89 (85) |
| Thanet | 6 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 21 | 75 (71) |
| Tonbridge and Malling | 10 | 28 | 3 | 0 | 38 | 93 (83) |
| Tunbridge Wells | 6 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 27 | 84 (81) |
| Kent | 72 | 297 | 47 | 3 | 369 | 88 (82) |
Currently, 86% of pupils in Kent attend a good or outstanding school compared to 83% in July 2015 and 75% in July 2014. This means approximately 7233 more children and young people are receiving a better education since last July, including 6520 Primary School pupils.
The overall figure includes 86% of Primary school pupils (97,523), 86% of Secondary school pupils (84,109) and 95% of Special school pupils (3461) who now attend a good or outstanding school.
There has been a very good improvement in the numbers attending a good or outstanding Pupil Referral Unit from 30% of pupils in 2012, 76% in 2013, 90% in 2014, 94% in 2015 and to 98% currently. The quality of PRUs has improved so that 86% are now good or outstanding.
Most ‘satisfactory’ or ‘requires improvement’ schools are well led and making good progress, so that we are confident of future good inspection outcomes. By this summer we have reached our target of at least 86% of schools to be good or outstanding. Over time, this is deliberately ambitious in order to continue to increase the rate of improvement in education in Kent. We expect this positive trend to continue towards our ambitious target of at least 90% of Primary and Secondary schools to be judged good or outstanding in the next year or two.
Key lessons from schools that achieve a good or better inspection outcome include: a strong focus on improving rates of progress for all groups of pupils and being able to evidence this well for inspectors; procedures for ensuring and judging accurately the quality and continuous improvement of teaching; effective use of the pupil premium and other funding to ensure under-achieving pupils catch up quickly and gaps narrow; good use of assessment to feed back to pupils and help them to do better; effective use of data to track pupils’ progress and monitor teaching quality, which informs the school’s procedures for targeting improvement activity; accurate evaluation of the school’s strengths and weaknesses with clear actions to address under-performance; and clear evidence of improvement since the last inspection. No school achieves consistency of practice and continuous improvement without highly effective leadership and governance.
As always, we encourage schools to learn from each others’ inspection experiences and some of the best preparation for inspection is to talk to a school that has been inspected recently.
Congratulations and very well done to all the schools that have improved and achieved a positive inspection outcome so far this school year.
Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services