House of Commons - Education and Skills

Select Committee on Education and Skills Minutes of Evidence

3. Memorandum submitted by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (DP42)

SCHOOL STATUS AND SPECIALISM: AN ANALYSIS OF INSPECTION AND EXAMINATION DATA

INTRODUCTION

1. This analysis covers three aspects of secondary school diversity. One is the status of the schools, which are categorised for this purpose as voluntary aided/voluntary controlled, foundation and community. The second dimension is specialism, that is, designation as a specialist school for technology, languages, arts or sports. Schools with such a designation may be of any status. The third dimension is selection by general ability.

STATUS

2. The GCSE results for 2002 for the three types of status are shown in Chart 1. Average point score per pupil is the measure used.

3. Chart 2 shows the relationship between free school meal percentage and the average points score.

4. Data from Section 10 Ofsted inspections provide another perspective. The data used in this paper are taken from inspections undertaken in the period 2000-02 and relate to the following numbers of schools:

Voluntary schools 241 (including 135 Roman Catholic and
64 Church of England schools)

Foundation schools 162

Community Schools 787

5. Six inspection judgements have been selected as a basis for comparison. These are:

— the quality of teaching;

— the quality of leadership and management of the headteacher and key staff;

— the quality and range of the learning opportunities;

— behaviour, including the incidence of exclusions;

— how well the pupils achieve; and

— the overall effectiveness of the school.

CONTEXT

6. An indication of the context of the schools inspected is given below. Free school meals (FSM) is the commonly used indicator of the educational advantage or disadvantage of the pupil intake. Chart 3 shows that the range of FSM is greatest in community schools and smallest in foundation schools. The median in foundation schools is almost half that in community schools.

7. Chart 4 shows that the range of the percentage of pupils identified by the school as having special educational needs is similar in foundation, voluntary and community schools, although the median is significantly higher in community schools than in the other two categories.

8. Chart 5 gives the distribution of ethnic minority pupils.

Inspection judgements

10. Chart 7 shows that the quality of teaching is highest in foundation schools, where 87% of the teaching is good or better. This compares with 83% in voluntary schools and 73% in community schools.

11. Chart 8 shows that the quality of leadership and management is judged highest in the foundation schools, with 85% being good or better. This compares with 82% in voluntary schools and 78% in community schools.

12. The quality and range of learning opportunities, as shown in chart 9, is highest in foundation schools, where 73% is good or better. This is well ahead of the 53% in voluntary schools and 47% in community schools.

13. Chart 10 shows that behaviour is judged best in foundation schools (86% good or better) and voluntary schools (85%). In community schools behaviour is good or better in 78% of schools.

14. The inspectors' judgements of how well pupils achieve take account of the progress made by pupils, the level of demand placed on them and other relevant factors.

15. Chart 11 indicates that there is no difference in how well pupils achieve in relation to their ability in voluntary and foundation schools, with 74% good or better. Among community schools 58% are judged good or better in this respect.

16. In terms of their overall effectiveness, Chart 12 shows that voluntary schools are rated as good or better in 79% of schools. This compares with 78% in foundation schools and 62% in community schools.

17. Chart 13 shows the percentage of schools of each types judged to need special measures or to have serious weaknesses in their last inspection.

Specialism

18. The GCSE results for 2002 for the specialist schools against all others schools, are shown in Chart 14.

19. The average points score for specialist schools, and all other schools, against the percentage of free school meals, is shown in Chart 15.

Context

20. An indication of the context of the specialist schools inspected is given below. Free school meals (FSM) is the commonly used indicator of the educational advantage or disadvantage of the pupil intake.