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20 Apr 2009 : Column 264W—continued
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what percentage of (a) medium-sized and (b) large schools Ofsted judged to be (i) outstanding, (ii) good, (iii) satisfactory and (iv) inadequate in each of the last 10 years. [267382]
Jim Knight: This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply has been placed in the House Libraries.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, dated 3 April 2009:
Your recent parliamentary question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, for reply.
There are no standard definitions for medium or large schools. This response provides data based on the size banding used when analysing inspection outcomes for Ofsted’s Annual Reports. These also include the figures on small schools (primary schools with 100 pupils or fewer, and secondary schools with 600 pupils or fewer), previously provided in response to Parliamentary Question 258254. Data identifying the total number of pupils on a school’s roll in each academic year are derived from the Annual School Census produced by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Please note that schools for which the number of pupils on roil is not available have been excluded from this analysis.
Ofsted introduced a judgement of schools’ overall effectiveness in January 2000, and this response covers data since that point. Under the school inspection framework used between January 2000 and August 2005 (commonly known as Section 10), the school’s overall effectiveness judgement was made using a seven point scale: excellent, very good, good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, poor and very poor. Since September 2005, the overall effectiveness judgement has been made under the current school inspection framework (commonly known as Section 5) using a four point scale: outstanding, good, satisfactory and inadequate. Tables A to D show the percentages of primary and secondary schools by grade for each academic year since January 2000.
It is not possible to operate a simple read-across approach from a seven- to a four-point scale. Ofsted’s criteria for making inspection judgements about schools are clearly set out in our inspection guidance, which is available on the Ofsted website at
A copy of this reply has been sent to Rt Hon Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, and will be placed in the library of both Houses.
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