Ofsted Chief Inspector launches her second Annual Report on state of education and children’s care in England
This year’s annual report finds the overall quality of education and care in England is improving, but more action is needed to support the children being left behind.
There is a group of young people who seem to have the deck stacked against them. I often liken the path through education to a slope. For affluent and high ability children the slope is, in general, fairly shallow, and the path to reaching their potential only moderately challenging. For others from poorer backgrounds, who face challenges in the home, or who struggle with learning, the gradient is steeper and the path is harder. Our job as education and care professionals is to reduce that gradient, to make that path shallower.
And perhaps the most important thing we can do to reduce that gradient is to get the basics right.
Other areas of concern highlighted in the Annual Report
- Between 2016 and 2017, 19,000 pupils dropped off school rolls between Years 10 and 11 and around half did not reappear on the roll of another state-funded school. This is a huge cause for concern. Ofsted’s new education inspection framework will empower schools to always put the child first, and it will allow inspectors to report on those schools that off-roll young people who might achieve less well.
