‘Fashionable gimmicks’ slated as 500 schools are stuck at bottom of class

HUNDREDS of schools are stuck in a cycle of poor performance, the education watchdog Ofsted warns.

Instead of focusing on getting the basics right, heads and governors are falling victim to “fashionable gimmicks”, according to Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector.

She also complained that many schools were illegally expelling or excluding pupils before exams to boost performance data.

Inspectors rated almost 500 English schools as inadequate or needing improvement every time they have been inspected since 2005.

Launching Ofsted’s annual report in London yesterday, Ms Spielman said the quality of education was improving but too many pupils had “the

deck stacked against them”. Overall, inspectors found 95 per cent of early providers to be good or outstanding.

They also found that 76 per cent of further education (FE) colleges and 86 per cent of schools are at least good.

Ofsted rated 82 per cent of children’s homes as good or better and said the number of councils that were good or outstanding for children’s services was rising.

Children from poorer backgrounds faced a steeper path, with some never catching up in 12 years of schooling, said Ms Spielman. She added: “Perhaps the most important thing to reduce that gradient is to get the basics right.”

She said: “FE is too often seen as a poor relation to schools, somewhere for ‘other people’s children’, while the outlook for too many children in contact with the care system remains bleak.”

She urged policymakers to stop searching for “magic potion” solutions.

She said: “Despite the history of snake oil, white elephants and fashionable gimmicks that have in the main been debunked, there remains a curious optimism that the elixir of education is just around the corner.

“But we don’t need an elixir. We have the tried and tested ingredients we need.”