Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire failing disadvantaged pupils, Ofsted warns

Andrew Cook, Ofsted’s regional director has said education bosses in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire are failing their most disadvantaged pupils.

Cook has written a letter to Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire local authorities and MPs to raise concerns about its standards. The letter outlines a number of concerns including: low attainment for pupils at the end of primary school and a failure by council leaders to drive rapid improvement in Central Bedfordshire; and a higher than average proportion of schools in Cambridgeshire that have been judged to either require improvement or to be inadequate.

The counties have been criticised for an ‘unacceptably wide’ gap between the achievements of young people who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) and those from more advantaged backgrounds.

Cook said: “Nowhere in the East of England is this disparity more stark than in Central Bedfordshire. The attainment gaps between pupils eligible for free school meals and their classmates are not only wider at Key Stages 2 and 4 than those found nationally, but they widen as pupils move through their secondary education.”

Data showed that in Bedfordshire 55 per cent of FSM pupils achieved minimum standards for reading, writing and mathematics at the end of primary school, with less than 30 per cent of students achieving the gold standard of five A* to C grades at GCSE.

In Cambridge, the figure is even lower with just 23.4 per cent of pupils reaching five A* to C grades.

Cook added: “There appears to be a dearth of good practice in Cambridgeshire schools from which school leaders can learn. There are 16 secondary schools that in the past have been judged by Ofsted to be good or outstanding.

"Recent outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in these schools are unimpressive. In nine of these schools, the gap in expected progress for English between disadvantaged and other pupils in all schools widened in 2015. Outcomes are no better for disadvantaged young children in Cambridgeshire."