27 January 2015 weekly update

Ofsted Update

Ofsted published its Annual Report in December. Nationally 82% of Primary schools and 71% of Secondary schools are judged good or outstanding.  84% of leadership and management in Primary schools is good or outstanding compared to 77% in Secondary schools.  At the same time teaching is good or outstanding in 82% of Primary schools compared to 71% of Secondary schools.

In Kent this national picture is reversed. At present, 84% of Secondary schools, 74% of Primary schools, 83% of Special schools and 91% of PRUs in Kent are judged to be good or outstanding. 90% of Early Years settings are good or outstanding.

Overall, the latest Ofsted data for Kent shows that 77% of schools are rated good or outstanding, compared to 80% nationally. This includes 17% of schools judged to be outstanding and 60% judged to be good, compared to 20% outstanding and 60% good schools nationally.

In Kent, there are 332 good and 93 outstanding schools, 105 schools requiring improvement (including 89 Primary schools and 11 Secondary schools) and 24 schools in a category, out of a total of 554 schools that have a current inspection result.

In July 2014, the percentage of good and outstanding schools was 75%, compared to 68% at the same time in 2013, 59% in 2012 and 55% in 2011.

We continue to perform below the national average (80%) for the number of good or outstanding schools but the gap is closing. By 2018 we expect at least 90% of schools in Kent to be good and outstanding.

Of the 34 schools inspected so far this school year 65% were judged to be good or outstanding, compared to 61% in 2013-14, which is a better rate of improvement but not yet good enough. Of the 22 Primary schools inspected since September, 64% have been judged good or outstanding compared to only 54% in 2013-14. 

There is most variation, between districts, in the quality of Primary Schools.

Currently, 80% of pupils in Kent attend a good or outstanding school compared to 70% in July 2013. This means approximately 15,400 more children and young people receiving a better education over this period.

This includes 73% of Primary school pupils (81,869), 86% of Secondary school pupils (84,550) and 89% of Special School pupils (3061) who now attend a good or outstanding school. 

As Kent continues to improve its Primary school inspection outcomes, 3% more children are attending a good or outstanding school compared to 2012-13.  The improvement from 2011-12 to 2013-14 is 16%. This means that more than seven out of ten children in Kent are attending a good or outstanding Primary school. However, this still means we are ranked 131 out of 150 local authorities, up from 140 in 2011-12.

The number of pupils attending a good or outstanding Secondary school in Kent has grown from 70% in 2011-12 to 85% in 2013-14.  More than 4 out of 5 Secondary pupils in Kent are now attending a good or outstanding school, which places us at 37 out of 150 local authorities, up from a ranking of 74 in 2011-12.

There has been a very good improvement in the numbers attending a good or outstanding Pupil Referral Unit from 30% of pupils in 2012, to 76% in 2013 to 95% currently. The quality of PRUs has improved so that 91% are now good or outstanding.

Many 'satisfactory' or 'requires improvement' schools are well led and making good progress, so that we can be more confident of a future good inspection outcome. We expect this positive trend to continue and to gather pace towards our ambitious target of at least 90% of Primary and Secondary schools and 100% of Special schools to be judged good or outstanding by Ofsted by 2018.

By 2015 we expect at least 82% of schools to be good or outstanding. Over time, this is deliberately more ambitious in order to challenge ourselves to do much better very soon.

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; procedures for ensuring the consistency 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 other's inspection experiences and some of the best preparation for inspection is to talk to a school that has been inspected recently. 

Congratulations and well done to all the schools that have improved and achieved a positive inspection outcome so far this school year.

Patrick Leeson