Schools with deprived children less likely to be judged "good"

Ofsted has said in a blog post that schools with more pupils from deprived backgrounds are still less likely to be judged good than those from more affluent backgrounds under the education inspection framework (EIF), just as they were under the last framework.

Ofsted has published the first 36 inspections under the new framework which suggested schools with more challenging intakes were still at a disadvantage, with those with the highest prior attainment intakes twice as likely to be rated ‘good’ than those with the lowest.

Sean Harford HMI, Ofsted's National Director for Education wrote: "Some will be disappointed to see that, so far, schools with more pupils from deprived backgrounds are still less likely to be judged good than those from more affluent backgrounds under the EIF, just as they were under the last framework. There’s currently no clear difference in the proportion of schools judged outstanding in deprived areas, but the overall numbers are small.

"That’s not to say it’s all bad news – some of these schools are doing very well. Of the schools with pupils from the most deprived quintile that we have inspected to date under the EIF, 64% have been rated as good or outstanding, which is great to see.

"As inspectors, we have to expect the same high standards for all pupils in all schools. But that’s not to say that we don’t take context into account when making judgements. For example, inspection outcomes show that schools with deprived intakes are more likely to be judged outstanding for the effectiveness of leadership and management than schools with less deprived intakes (the two most deprived quintiles compared to the two least deprived). So, our inspectors are often recognising the challenges that these schools face.

"But, as nice as it would be, it’s unrealistic to think that a new inspection framework is suddenly going to result in a huge leap upwards in inspection grades for schools in disadvantaged areas."

Sean cites recruitment and retention as one of the reasons, and the fact that some schools are in isolated places, making it more difficult to access high-quality resources, like great museums, libraries and theatres.

Sean said: "Some of these children are unfortunately not getting the education they deserve. Ofsted has to draw attention to that."