Schools face being marked down for taking in too many middle-class children
Schools face being marked down for taking on too many middle-class pupils under plans being considered by the education watchdog.
As part of Ofsted’s new rating system, schools would have to take their “fair share” of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as those with special education needs, according to proposals seen by The Telegraph.
The plans, which have been discussed with senior Ofsted officials, were drawn up by Prof Lee Elliot Major, an expert in social mobility at Exeter University.
He explained under the current system, there is nothing to stop the most sought-after schools from admitting as many middle-class pupils as possible.
“What we want is excellent schools serving all our children and to be measured on that,” he said. “Too often what happens is the schools we penalise are the ones serving the most challenging communities. We are trying to equalise the unlevel playing field.
“This isn’t about dumbing down – this is very much about improving standards for all. If you improve the learning for children from the most under-resourced background, you improve learning for all children.”
Prof Major is an advisor to Ofsted and has been involved in designing many key education policies. These include setting up the national tutoring programme in the wake of the pandemic and moving away from long, essay-style personal statements in university applications to make them more inclusive.
The Government announced in September one-word school ratings which are currently given by Ofsted would be scrapped and replaced with a new regime.
The move followed the death of Ruth Perry, the headteacher who took her own life after an inspection downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
The single-word rating will be replaced by a school report card containing ten separate grades based on “key areas”.
Prof Major’s proposals, which will be piloted by secondary schools in the South West later this year, would see schools marked on a range of measures aimed at disadvantaged children.
These include incentives for schools to ensure they are treating pupils from troubled homes fairly when it comes to suspensions and expulsions, as well as incentives to boost their attendance and grades in GCSE English and maths.
“For children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, the school system hasn’t been working,” Prof Major said. “We know this because in the post-pandemic gap between children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and the rest have got bigger – they are the starkest we have seen in a generation.”
Earlier this month, Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector of schools in England, said that “inclusion” will be one of the criteria for the new report card system “because we want to make sure schools are accessible to everyone”.
In a speech earlier this month, he said: “I am clear that inclusion means expecting the highest standards for all children, especially the disadvantaged and vulnerable – because if you get it right for them, you get it right for everyone.
“So, inclusion must never become an excuse for lowering expectations. We know that it is harder for schools working with the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, but we must ensure behavioural and academic expectations remain sky high.”
Pupil attendance will be among 10 new performance ratings upon which schools will be judged under plans to be unveiled by Ofsted and Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, in January.
From next year, schools will also be rated according to how well they instil British values and how they prepare children with the life skills needed for the outside world.
Other ratings will cover the quality of a school’s curriculum, the teaching provided and the educational attainment of the children.
Ofsted said it does not currently consider admissions as part of school inspections and has “no plans” to do so in the future. “The focus of our inspections is the quality of education provided for pupils,” a spokesman said.