'Deeply troubling' divide in England's secondary schools alarms Ofsted

England is a divided nation educationally, with children in the north and Midlands much less likely to attend a good or outstanding secondary school than their peers in the south, according to the chief inspector of schools.

Launching Ofsted’s annual report on the state of the nation’s schools on Tuesday, Sir Michael Wilshaw will describe the divide as “deeply troubling”. More than 400,000 pupils in northern England and the Midlands are being taught in a secondary school that falls below Ofsted’s “good” rating.

The report will highlight 16 poorly performing local authority areas where fewer than 60% of the children attend good or outstanding secondary schools and where pupils achieve lower than average GCSE grades and make less than average progress. All but three are in the north and Midlands, many in satellite towns outside cities such as Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.

Wilshaw will highlight a crisis in teacher recruitment that is affecting schools across the country and will propose the introduction of “golden handcuffs” – a financial incentive to discourage teachers from leaving the state sector and taking up jobs in private schools.

Delivering his fourth annual Ofsted report as chief inspector, Wilshaw will criticise a lack of political will in the worst performing areas.

The report, which is based on the outcomes of Ofsted school inspections over the past year, says English primary schools continue to improve and there is no difference between the north and south in the quality of primaries or the achievement of their pupils.

The difference at secondary level therefore cannot be explained by issues of relative wealth or poverty, Wilshaw will say, and he will call for a London Challenge-style campaign in weaker areas, with collective action by local politicians, MPs, chief executives and headteachers to raise school standards.

The London Challenge was launched in 2003 with massive investment by the Labour government to improve the performance of the capital’s secondary schools, which were producing among the poorest results in the country. Since then, their results – particularly among disadvantaged students – are an extraordinary success story. There is still considerable debate about the precise reasons for the turnaround, but collaboration among schools was a key element of the project.

Wilshaw, interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, called on successful secondary schools in big cities in the north and Midlands to come to the rescue of failing schools in their neighbouring satellite towns.

Asked whether the success of London’s schools was simply down to a large and highly ambitious immigrant population – as some research has suggested he credited political will instead and the refusal of local leaders to put up with mediocrity.

Wilshaw said: “There’s a growing divide between the performance of secondary schools in London and the south and the performance of secondary schools in the MIdlands and north.”

The problems were not in schools in big cities, but the satellite towns around the major conurbations, he added. “What we are saying very clearly in this report today is that the successful schools, and there are many of them in the north of England and the Midlands in those major towns, need to help those under-performing secondary schools in those satellite towns. So Leeds, for example, where there are a lot of good secondary schools, needs to help the languishing secondary schools in Bradford.”

He denied it was the result of differences in funding. “It’s not so much a money thing because the differential in funding is not that great between the north and south. We’ve done some research on that. What makes the difference in school performance as everyone knows is the quality of leadership and the quality of teaching.

“If we can get good leaders into those schools, if we can get good teachers into those schools, if the culture of those schools improves, particularly if behaviour in those schools improves, then we will see better institutions.”



Wilshaw welcomed government initiatives such as the talented leaders programme, which identifies good leaders in different parts of the country and moves them into under-performing areas. He said: “It’s something I recommended two or three years ago. We want to see those initiatives developed and extended.”

Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said Wilshaw’s acknowledgment of the success of the London Challenge – with its emphasis on school collaboration rather than competition – was an embarrassment to the government.

“The government has engineered a fragmented education system in England where too many schools are isolated and lack the support, which local authorities provided, to establish the productive working partnerships with more successful schools which was the hallmark of the London challenge,” she said.

“The London Challenge worked because less successful schools were paired with more successful ones and learned from them. Strong accountability measures were balanced by practical help, advice and assistance, with a determined focus on the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms.

“But the pressure of accountability measures, league tables and Ofsted itself means that successful schools are pulling up the drawbridges. The danger of becoming associated with a poorly performing school is leading to greater segregation among schools, leaving those in challenging circumstances more isolated and less able to access the support they need.”

Wilshaw will say that record numbers of children are attending schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, due largely to improvements in primary schools. Secondary schools, however, continue to cause concern.

He will highlight a shortage of high-quality secondary school leaders, particularly in the north and Midlands, and call for action to tackle the crisis in teacher recruitment. Maths, science and technology teachers are in desperately short supply, with many newly qualified teachers either leaving the country to teach abroad or moving into the private sector.

Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Sir Michael Wilshaw is right to be alarmed at the teacher recruitment crisis gripping England’s schools. Golden handcuffs alone will not address the fact that the teaching profession has become unattractive to many graduates.

“Alongside pay and unmanageable workloads, the punitive nature of Ofsted inspections are also contributing factors and need to be addressed.”

Wilshaw will say action is needed at a national level to tackle this issue, including financial incentives to get trainees to start their career in the areas and schools that need them most, and thought given to a form of golden handcuffs to encourage teachers to keep working in the state system that trained them.