Ofsted report highlights recent improvements in English school education

Educational standards at England's schools are gradually improving, according to a new report from regulator Ofsted.

Data from the latest Ofsted Annual Report has shown that education and support services offered to the vast majority of young people in 2017 are the best they ever have been, with 94 per cent of early-years providers now rated good or outstanding, as well as 90 per cent of primary schools and 79 per cent of secondary schools.

However, room for improvement still exists, with a small group of schools identified that have not experienced any real improvement for many years, including around 130 where this underperformance has persisted for up to a decade.

Shared characteristics of these schools include unstable leadership, high staff turnover and difficulty in recruiting new teachers, while many were also shown to have high proportions of pupils from deprived areas and above-average levels of pupils with special education needs or disabilities.

To tackle these persistent issues, Ofsted will be taking a number of interventionary steps over the next 12 months, including a new approach to inspecting local authority children's services beginning in January, with a greater focus on catching areas before they fall.

Work will also commence on the development of a new education inspection framework for 2019, building on recent findings and with a particular focus on the curriculum.

Chief inspector Amanda Spielman said: "Our collective mission - and by that I mean everyone involved in education and care - should be to create a society where every young person, regardless of birth or background, can achieve their full potential.

"Everything I see in my job, looking at the work of thousands of children's homes, colleges, schools and nurseries shows me that isn't an idle pipe dream."