Satisfactory is not good enough

Recently, the media spotlight has been turned on schools that are considered to be ‘coasting’.  David Cameron, the Prime Minister has referred to the need to challenge coasting schools to improve more quickly.  In Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI)’s annual report published in November reference was made to nearly 800 schools that have been judged to be satisfactory over more than one inspection and can therefore be considered to be coasting.

HMCI 2011 annual report: can be found here

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) has also jointly published a report with OFSTED that focuses on the 40% of secondary schools in England that are judged to be satisfactory. This report notes that half of these schools have remained as satisfactory for at least two inspections and 8% have declined to an inadequate rating.

The report can be found here

Disadvantaged pupils

The RSA report shows that pupils from disadvantaged areas are more likely to attend one of these schools than their more affluent counterparts, with a higher proportion in Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and East of England.

Satisfactory to go?

The report suggests that the term ‘satisfactory’ or ‘adequate’ can be misleading and should be replaced by ‘performing inconsistently’ since inconsistent performance within a school is often one of the main hallmarks of schools that are not able to progress from satisfactory to good.

Sir Michael Willshaw, the new HMCI has also indicated that he wants to replace the word ‘satisfactory’ in an OFSTED judgement with a clearer explanation of why a school cannot be judged to be good.

Raising the inspection bar

The DfE has indicated that it agrees with the main thrust of these reports and has affirmed that the tougher inspection regime that will come into effect from January 2012 will target schools that are at risk of falling back or making slow or no progress.

It is clear that school leaders would be well advised to ensure that they fully understand the implications of the new inspection framework, in particular the need to undertake regular and robust self-evaluation and ensure strong quality assurance processes that both identify and seek to address inconsistencies in performance.  The rest really do need to learn from the best.