Why our children find it harder to attend a good secondary school
PUPILS IN Yorkshire are less likely to go to a good primary or secondary school than children anywhere else in the country, an Ofsted chief has warned.
A new regional report for Yorkshire and the North East published today shows that a third of students go to secondary schools which the inspection watchdog has said are not good enough.
This is worse than anywhere else in England.
Ofsted classes Yorkshire and the North East as one region and produces an annual report showing how schools in these areas are rated following the past 12 months of inspections.
The watchdog can judge schools to be outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate.
The report shows that overall there has been an improvement in primary school performance with 30,000 more children now attending good schools.
However Ofsted’s regional director Nick Hudson told The Yorkshire Post this was largely driven by primary schools in the North East which were now the best in the country, while primaries in Yorkshire actually had the worst inspection record of any region in England. There are four areas of Yorkshire where less than half of pupils go to good secondary schools, according to Ofsted. In Doncaster only 37 per cent of pupils go to good schools,
in Bradford, the figure is 40 per cent. while in the East Riding its 46 per cent and in Barnsley its 48 per cent. Barnsley and East Riding both have more pupils attending good secondary schools than a year earlier. Barnsley has seen a 25 per cent increase.
The Ofsted report also reveals large variations within Yorkshire. In York 93 per cent of pupils go to good secondary schools and in Rotherham the figure is 91 per cent. Both nationally and in Yorkshire there are major differences between the proportion of good secondaries and good primary schools. In his third annual report, Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw says while primary schools in England continue to forge ahead, the rate of improvement in secondary education is grinding to a halt, with the overall proportion rated good or outstanding remaining the same as last year.
However the Government insisted there have been “incredible” improvements in secondary schools in recent years which should be recognised.
And head teachers reacted angrily to Sir Michael’s conclusions and rejected the assertion that standards in secondary education have stalled. At primary school Doncaster has the lowest level of children attending good primary schools in Yorkshire and the second lowest in the country – at 58 per cent. Ofsted figures show that authorities which have traditionally had low levels of academic attainment at secondary school – such as Hull and Barnsley – actually have more pupils going to good primary schools than North Yorkshire. The figure for Hull and Barnsley – 79 per cent – is one per cent higher than North Yorkshire. Calderdale has the highest proportion of pupils going to good primary schools in Yorkshire at 88 per cent.