The proportion of ‘outstanding’ schools that kept their grade almost doubled last year, new Ofsted data shows.
Management information published by the watchdog shows 39 per cent of the 1,214 previously ‘outstanding’ schools inspected in 2023-24 kept their grade. This is up from 21 per cent of the 579 inspected in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, the proportion of schools now rated below ‘good’ has fallen to 10 per cent – the lowest ever.
Just 1 per cent of the 4,023 schools inspected last year were rated ‘inadequate’, down from four per cent in 2022-23 and seven per cent in 2021-22.
Last year was the last where headline grades were issued. This year, schools only get grades for key judgment categories, before new report cards are introduced next September.
Huge rise in schools keeping coveted ‘outstanding’
Ofsted has ramped up its inspections of schools previously awarded the top grade, after an inspection exemption was lifted.
In the first year after the exemption was lifted, more than four fifths of schools lost the coveted grade – but those which had not been inspected for the longest were prioritised.
But this figure leapt to 39 per cent last year.
Only six per cent of ‘outstanding’ schools inspected last year fell to below ‘good’, which is way down on the 22 per cent in 2021-22.
Ofsted has been approached for comment – including on what factors they believe may be behind the change.
While rising standards is likely a reason, it is possible other factors may have also influenced the change – such as the profile of schools inspected or increasing familiarisation with the framework.
School grade profile improves
Of the ‘outstanding’ schools inspected last year, 55 per cent were downgraded to ‘good’, lower than the 66 per cent that moved to that grade the year before. Only 6 per cent became ‘requires improvement’, down from 11 per cent.
And 0 per cent were ‘inadequate’, although the percentage figures are rounded so it’s possible a small number of schools fell to that grade. In the previous year, 2 per cent of schools dropped to a grade 4.
Despite the big increase last year in ‘outstanding’ schools keeping their grades, the proportion of schools rated ‘outstanding’ overall sits at 14 per cent, the lowest since current records began in 2010, when it was 18 per cent.
It is down from a high of 21 per cent in 2017 and 2018.
However, because of a big increase in schools rated ‘good’, the proportion of schools with one of the top two grades stands at 90 per cent, up from 89 per cent the previous year.
This overall figure – sometimes called the “state of the nation measure” – has been regularly trumpeted by ministers from the last government, despite repeated warnings it is misleading.
Ofsted has said it will now retire the measure, after scrapping the overall effectiveness judgment ahead of new report cards from next September.
‘Concerns’ during ungraded visits also diminish
‘Outstanding’ schools are initially subject to ungraded inspections.
These either confirm their ‘outstanding’ grade, convert to a full visit immediately if serious failings are found, or result in a full return within one to two years if there are “concerns” it might not keep its grade.
Last year, of those inspections that did not immediately convert, inspectors were “not satisfied that the school would have received at least its current grade if it had received a graded inspection instead of an ungraded inspection” in 32 per cent of cases.
This fell from 39 per cent the previous year and 53 per cent the year before that.
‘Outstanding’ schools were exempt from routine inspection between 2012 and 2020, though many were still inspected because the watchdog had concerns.
Of those schools that had been exempt that were inspected last year, inspectors felt in 38 per cent of cases that their grade may not hold up in a full inspection. This compared to just 26 per cent of those that were inspected between 2012 and 2020.
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