School strategies 'paying off'

Inspections still send tremors through schools

School standards in England are generally improving, but secondary schools are not progressing as quickly as primaries, according to the chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead.

And the teaching of computer skills is still not good enough.

Chris Woodhead: Praise where it's due

In his annual report for 1999, published on Tuesday, Mr Woodhead also highlights the poor performance of a substantial minority of local education authorities.

For the second year running, Mr Woodhead confirms that school standards in England are improving.

"The quality of teaching has improved in all types of school, in all subjects and in all year groups," he says.

"More headteachers are raising expectations and challenging and supporting their staff, more are monitoring teaching in a systematic and rigorous way. Pupils' behaviour has improved and is good in most schools."

'Promising' rise

The exception to "this picture of steady, if unspectacular, improvement" he says is the sharp rise in pupils' achievements in their Key Stage 2 English and mathematics tests - the tests they have to sit at the age of 11.

"This is a very significant and promising development, which is directly linked to the national literacy and numeracy strategies," Mr Woodhead writes.

But he says there is no room for complacency - and there are wide variations between different local education authorities.

"There is little inspection evidence to support the concern that the literacy and numeracy strategies are undermining standards in other subjects. Most primary schools continue to provide a broad and balanced curriculum," he says.

Many schools find time for things that are not required in the curriculum, such as a modern foreign language.

Team games losing out

"There is, however, some evidence that an increased emphasis upon study support is reducing the time given to traditional after school activities such as team games," he adds.

"The two activities ought not to be mutually exclusive, and future developments will need to be monitored carefully."

The general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, David Hart, welcomed the 'belated' recognition that "the vast majority of teachers are doing a thundering good job".

The picture Mr Woodhead paints is not so rosy in secondary schools, though.

"It is disappointing to report that there has been relatively little change in national curriculum test results in English and mathematics at Key Stage 3 over the last five years," he says of the tests for 14-year-olds.

Thirteen per cent of all pupils fail to gain a GCSE qualification in both English and mathematics and 6.1% fail to gain any GCSE qualification at all.

"These are deeply disturbing statistics," Mr Woodhead says.

Vocational training

"They confirm the need to build better foundations in literacy and numeracy at primary school, to improve the transition from primary to secondary schools, to raise the quality of teaching in Key Stage 3, and, as the government intends, to pursue vocational and work-based training options ... for those students who are unlikely to make a great deal of progress if they continue to study an exclusively academic curriculum."

The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, said: "Secondary schools have delivered improvements in results year after year at both GCSE and A-level.

"While schools will be happy to focus on improving achievement in schools for 11-14 year olds, this cannot be done against a background of lower funding and increasing class size."

Despite some improvement this year, Mr Woodhead says pupils' progress in information technology is unsatisfactory in more than a third of primary schools and more than four in 10 secondary schools.

And there are worries about the quality of trainee teachers, whose courses are also inspected by the Office for Standards in Education in England (Ofsted), headed by Mr Woodhead.

"The key issue which emerged in English is ... disturbing: trainees' subject knowledge required significant improvement in over three-quarters of the courses inspected," he says.

"Students simply do not know enough about how English as a language works."

The position with regard to mathematics is, perhaps surprisingly, much better, he adds.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme before the publication of the report, Mr Woodhead said some schools were being let down by their local authorities because they were not receiving enough support.

"Too many authorities are wasting public money, they are not led clearly at the political level, and the efficiency of the officials, the officers, is not up to scratch," he said.

Some worrying private schools

Ofsted has already identified more than 20 councils whose administration of schools is causing concern - three of them last week.

Mr Woodhead also looks at the independent sector, where he says most schools provide a good-quality education and pupils achieve good or excellent standards.

"However, the sector is very diverse, and there is a small minority of schools that gives rise to serious concern," he says.

"The fact that an independent school can register without evidence of a suitable curriculum development plan or financial security is a cause for concern.

"In the worst examples, pupils have been admitted to sites which represent serious health hazards. The government's plans to consult on reforms to the registration and monitoring systems are, therefore, welcome."

Special mention

The Office for Standards in Education in England (Ofsted), headed by Mr Woodhead, has already identified more than 20 councils whose administration of schools is causing concern - three of them last week.

The other aspect of his annual report is the listing of schools that have done particularly well in terms of their inspections.

This year 273 schools are given special mention out of the 4,500 or so inspected during 1998/99.

BBC News Online is publishing the complete lists, with interviews with some of the headteachers from each area of the report.

There are six categories: outstanding and much improved secondary schools, outstanding and much improved primary schools - including nursery and infants schools, schools no longer subject to special measures - that is, no longer judged to be failing their pupils, and highly effective special schools.

Ofsted stresses that this is not any sort of league table, either of the schools or their local education authorities.