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A message from Patrick Leeson:

28 September 2017 weekly update

28 September 2017

This week, Patrick summarises the quality of education in Kent schools as reflected in the most recent Ofsted inspection judgements and shares our Directory of Services for the Children, Young People and Education Directorate.

Dear Colleagues

Ofsted Update: 91% of Kent Schools now Good or Outstanding

As we begin a new school year I would like to summarise the position at the end of July on the quality of education in Kent schools, as reflected in the most recent Ofsted inspection judgements.

The latest Ofsted inspection figures in the last school year (end of July) show continued further improvements in the quality of education in Kent schools.

Overall, 91% of schools in Kent are now rated good or outstanding compared to 89% nationally. This includes 22% of schools judged to be outstanding and 70% judged to be good. This exceeds our target of 90% for summer 2017, and it demonstrates the good progress we have made

This overall figure includes 92% of Primary schools judged to be good or outstanding, 90% of Secondary schools, 95.5% of Special schools and 71.4% of PRUs in Kent. Also, 97% of Early Years settings are good or outstanding, which is an excellent position.

In Kent, there are now 382 good and 119 outstanding schools, 46 schools requiring improvement (including 33 Primary schools, 10 Secondary schools, 1 Special School and 2 PRUs) and only one school remains in a category of concern, out of a total of 548 schools that have a current inspection result.

In Kent, 19% of Primary schools are outstanding, 73% are good, 8% require improvement and 0.2% are inadequate. In the Secondary sector, 32% of schools are outstanding, 58% are good, and 10% require improvement. Among Special schools 32% are outstanding, 64% are good and 5% require improvement. 29% of Pupil Referral Units are outstanding, 43% are good and 29% require improvement.

Kent has more outstanding provision in Secondary schools and PRUs than the national averages. The percentage of outstanding provision is just below the national average for Primary and Special schools. However the overall percentage of outstanding schools in Kent, at 22%, is the same as the national average.

In Kent now, 90% of pupils attend a good or outstanding school, including 91% of Primary pupils, 90% of Secondary pupils and 97% of pupils attending Special schools. This means that 10,181 more pupils attend a good or outstanding school compared to this time last year, including 7351 Primary pupils and 2887 Secondary pupils.

The trend over time continues to be a good rate of improvement, although it has slowed down in the past year. At the end of the 2015-16 school year, 88% of schools were good or outstanding which was above the national average. In July 2016, there were 370 good and 114 outstanding schools, 57 schools requiring improvement (including 42 Primary schools and 13 Secondary schools) and 4 schools in a category of concern, out of a total of 545 schools that had a current inspection result.

In July 2015, 82% of Kent schools were good or outstanding compared to 75% in 2014, 68% in 2013, 59% in 2012 and 55% in 2011.

Of the 51 schools inspected in the last school year 61% were judged to be good or outstanding, and 37% were rated as requiring improvement. This rate was lower than the previous year when 72% were judged to be good or better, and only 25% were rated as requiring improvement.

We expect the positive improvement trend to continue towards our ambitious target of at least 95% of Primary and Secondary schools to be judged good or outstanding in the next year or two.

Once again thank you to all the governors and senior leadership teams who continue to work so hard to ensure every child goes to a good school and we achieve our vision that Kent will be one of the best places to be educated in the country.

Directory of Services for Children, Young People and Education Directorate

At this time of year we also update the directory of KCC services (PDF, 715.5 KB) and the names of key posts of responsibility for Children, Young People and Education. If you have any queries about the services please contact the senior managers for your area or district in the directory.

We will be updating this further as we integrate Specialist Children’s Services into the new Directorate in the coming months.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director 
Children, Young People and Education