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Over a quarter of North East schools upgraded in post-Covid inspections

This academic year saw the first full year (except for a few weeks in response to the outbreak of the Omicron variant) of routine inspections since the new Ofsted education inspection framework (EIF) was introduced in 2019. Additionally, Ofsted announced earlier this academic year plans to inspect all schools by summer 2025.

Ofsted releases data monthly of all published inspections, with the most recent data published in June of reports up to the 31st May 2022. The graph below shows the changes in outcomes for all state funded school inspections, with a previous inspection grade, in this academic year. This includes both Section 5 and Section 8 inspections.

Under inspections carried out entirely under the new EIF, the North East saw the highest proportion of schools upgraded. London saw the highest proportion of downgrades, however this may be the result of the high proportion of outstanding schools in London being inspected.

While the EIF, with its focus on deep dives into the curriculum, has put significant additional workload on school staff, the move away from non-contextualised data appears to be more accurately reflecting the work schools in our region do.

The graph below shows all the most recent Section 5 inspection grades (including those carried out before the introduction of the new EIF).

London continues to have the highest proportion of schools rated outstanding or good (94%), with almost 30% of London schools rated outstanding. The South East has the second highest of outstanding and good schools at just over 90%, with the North East only marginally behind at 89.2%.

The North East is also third for the highest proportion of outstanding schools, with the North West in second (19.5% and 19.7% respectively). The North East is outperforming the national average for England (with 87.5% of schools across the country being rated outstanding or good).

In 2020 in the Sunday Times, former Ofsted HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw ‘helpfully’ stated that students in the North of England were being ‘let down’ by their schools. He said that students in the North are not different from those he ‘taught in London 10 years ago but they are not in good schools with good leaders’.

Schools North East wrote to the Sunday Times highlighting that Sir Michael’s claims of a ‘north south gap’ in education and that ‘these kids are not different’ were incorrect and not supported by the data. When contextual Progress 8 scores are used every Local Authority in the North East performs significantly better than the non-contextualised data indicates.

This year’s Ofsted outcomes further proves this. Despite working in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country, and dealing with the ongoing impact of a pandemic who’s impact fell most heavily upon them, increasing numbers of North East schools are being rated good or outstanding.

A slightly different picture emerges when results are broken down by stage, as the graph below shows. The data for primary and secondary schools does not include nurseries, special, or PRUs.

92% of primary schools in our region are rated outstanding or good, compared with a national figure of 88.8% nationally. For secondary schools in our region, this figure is 71%, compared with 79.1% nationally.

The data highlights the continuing challenges that schools and students across the country face in transition from primary to secondary. This is especially the case for secondary schools working in the most disadvantaged communities, as many schools in our region do.

While research last year showed that 11 out of 12 local authorities in the North East have a higher than average share of pupils attending an underperforming secondary school, over half of all secondary schools in our region inspected in 21/22 have been upgraded, significantly above the national average of 25%. Again, this may represent the new EIF taking into account the contextual challenges schools face. It should be noted though that only 36 secondary schools have been inspected this academic year. Again, the chart below does not include nurseries, special, or PRUs in the primary or secondary data.