Update – 16 Jan 2012: Ofsted announce plans to change “Satisfactory” grade to “Requires Improvement”. Read the press release here.
A report from Ofsted (published December 12th 2011) focused on two questions:
- what are the characteristics of secondary schools which appear to be ‘stuck at satisfactory’?
- why have these schools not been able to improve?
Executive summary: At 8 April 2011, there were 2,153 secondary schools that had been inspected at least twice under inspection frameworks with the same four ‘overall effectiveness’ judgements of outstanding, good, satisfactory, and inadequate. Of these, 473 were found to be satisfactory at both their most recent and their previous inspection. One hundred and thirty-nine had been satisfactory for three consecutive inspections in a row.
Many schools do improve from being found satisfactory so that they become good or outstanding. However, of the schools which were inspected and found satisfactory, and then subsequently inspected a second time, the majority did not improve sufficiently to see their overall effectiveness judgement change for the better. Fifty per cent remained satisfactory and 8% became inadequate. It is important to note that Ofsted’s inspection framework changes over time in order to raise expectations. Nonetheless these figures indicate a substantial challenge in improving the quality of satisfactory provision.
There is some evidence of a relationship between schools struggling to move beyond ‘satisfactory’ and their level of deprivation. Many schools serving more deprived families are good or better, but schools judged satisfactory are more likely to be serving more deprived families. In addition, schools serving students from the least deprived areas tend to improve more quickly to good or better, and schools serving students from the most deprived areas improve from satisfactory more slowly.
The key factor in improving schools is improving the quality of teaching and learning: most of the 473 schools judged satisfactory in two consecutive inspections had learning and progress that was judged satisfactory (95%), whereas those that improved from satisfactory to good at the second inspection were mainly judged to be good in these respects (94%).
There is a lot of variation between different local authorities in the proportion of schools stuck at satisfactory. In several authorities more than half of the secondary schools were judged satisfactory at the last inspection. In one local authority, 62% of students in mainstream secondary schools were being educated in schools judged satisfactory at their last inspection and a further 10% were in a school judged inadequate. Of the 10 local authorities with the highest proportion, all are urban and most are fairly small. In the 20 authorities with the highest proportion, there is one large ‘shire’ authority and only two London boroughs.
This report looks in detail at the recent inspection history of 36 schools that were judged to be satisfactory at both of their most recent inspections. A large majority of these schools were also judged to have had satisfactory leadership and management in both inspections. Three of the 36 were graded good for leadership and management on the first inspection, and two on the second. Only one of the 14 which had monitoring visits in between the full inspections was judged to be making inadequate progress.
The schools were characterised by a high level of change among staff and at senior level, with recent changes in leadership increasingly mentioned in more recent reports; half of the schools changed headteacher between the two most recent full inspections. Issues of staff recruitment and retention, most often in mathematics, were also prominent. It was evident that many of these schools had difficulty managing the challenges that they faced.
None of these schools were so weak as to be deemed inadequate but, as with all schools, inspectors set out priorities for improvement in their inspection reports which would help them to improve. The most common priorities were to improve the quality of teaching; to improve leadership and management; and to raise attainment and progress. The persistence of low attainment was linked to weak teaching and in turn to ineffective leadership of teaching at middle or more senior levels. Mathematics and English were most often cited as subjects requiring improvement. Low-level behaviour problems were also apparent from many of the reports.
Leaders and managers in these schools had often been unable to establish consistent quality and practice across enough of the school’s activities. These schools were characterised by securing improvements in some areas between one inspection and the next, but not in others, or allowing new weaknesses to emerge. Weaknesses in the leadership of teaching and learning, and in the monitoring, evaluation and improvement of the school by the leadership team were the most commonly cited priorities by inspectors. School leaders often had the relevant policies in place, but were not implementing and monitoring them effectively. A lack of focused and effective professional development for teachers was another common issue, which meant that pockets of good practice tended to remain isolated rather than spreading across these schools.
Teaching in these schools was therefore often ‘stuck’ at satisfactory despite good and even outstanding practice existing within the school. Most commonly, inconsistent practice in assessment and evaluation had resulted in a lack of challenge, mediocre progress, and attainment that failed to improve. The planning of lessons, and the style of teaching, failed to consistently meet the needs of all the students. Common weak areas of teaching practice mentioned included pace, challenge and variety of teaching methods so that teaching was dull. Assessment practice did not effectively engage young people in planning and directing their own improvement, either during lessons or over a period of time.
Although none of the secondary schools in the sample were reported as having serious problems with behaviour, more than half of them had critical comments about behaviour in one or both of their last two reports, suggesting that leaders had not established the right learning environment throughout the school. In several inspections, parents also expressed critical views. The most common behaviour problems reported included disruptive behaviour by a small minority of students, especially when teaching was weak or uninspiring. Crucially of course, leaders’ monitoring and actions were failing to eradicate these problems and not generating a strong enough learning ethos across the whole school.
Key findings
- The proportion of secondary schools judged satisfactory in each academic year decreased between 2005/06 and 2008/09 from 38% to 31%. As a new framework was introduced and inspection became more focused on weaker schools, it rose to 41% in 2009/10 and was 40% between 1 September 2010 and 8 April 2011.
- As at 8 April 2011, there were 2,153 secondary schools that had been inspected twice or more. Of these, 937 had been found to be satisfactory at the inspection before their latest one. Fifty per cent then remained satisfactory at their latest inspection and 8% became inadequate.
- Four hundred and seventy-three secondary schools were judged satisfactory at their last two inspections and 139 at their last three inspections.
- Fifty-four per cent of 404 secondary schools serving deprived and very deprived pupils were judged satisfactory for overall effectiveness in both their latest and previous inspections. This is compared with 44% of 302 secondary schools serving less and least deprived pupils.
- Schools serving more deprived families improve from satisfactory more slowly than schools serving affluent families.
- The size of the school does not influence the likelihood that it improves from satisfactory.
- Improved learning and progress are key to schools becoming good or better. The learning and progress judgement in secondary schools found to be satisfactory at their latest and previous inspections was satisfactory in the very large majority of schools inspected; whereas the very large majority of those that improved from satisfactory were found to have good learning and progress (94%).
- The local authorities with the highest proportion of secondary schools judged satisfactory at their most recent inspection are almost all smaller, urban authorities, with few ‘shire’ counties or London boroughs.
- North-east Lincolnshire, Blackpool, Merton and Peterborough are the local authorities that have the highest proportion of secondary schools found to be satisfactory at their latest inspection. Full local authority outcomes are presented in the data annex.
- In a detailed study of the recent inspection history of 36 schools judged satisfactory at their last two inspections, and with capacity to improve also satisfactory in the latest, it was found that:
- the main weaknesses in schools that do not improve their overall effectiveness judgement are low attainment, inconsistently effective leadership and management, and too little good teaching
- schools often failed fully to sustain improvement in their weaknesses from one inspection to the next, or only made improvements on a narrow front
- the sample schools came from a variety of social and economic contexts but around half seem to have had problems managing their circumstances, such as teacher recruitment or falling student numbers; half changed headteacher between their most recent and previous full inspections
- leaders were insufficiently effective in leading teaching from satisfactory to good, or in ensuring that monitoring and evaluation were driving consistent improvement in teaching
- the improvement of teaching was often held back by weaknesses in assessment and planning, so that students were insufficiently challenged; teaching lacked pace because it did not set high enough expectations, did not engage students sufficiently, and was sometimes faced by negative behaviour as a consequence
- in a substantial minority of these schools the whole-school ethos was insufficiently robust to contain disruptive behaviour by a minority of students in a small proportion of lessons; behaviour declined rapidly in some lessons and in a few cases attendance was also a challenge
- schools tended also to be satisfactory for leadership and management, especially at their second inspection
- inconsistency among middle managers is often cited as a limiting factor on improvement
- senior leaders often did not ensure consistency through accurate monitoring leading to appropriate professional development
- parents often held more negative views about behaviour compared with school leaders.
The full report (December 2011) can be accessed here.
