Today’s news review looks at Ofsted figures on maintained schools and academies and the Department’s publication of the Initial Teacher Training census.
Maintained schools and academies
On Wednesday, 23 November, Ofsted published its maintained schools and academies inspection outcomes.
It revealed there are almost 1.8 million more pupils in good or outstanding schools since 2010.
Other headlines show:
- 89% of schools are rated good or outstanding, up from 84% in August 2015.
- There are more than 6.6 million pupils taught in good or outstanding schools
- There are 18,607 good or outstanding schools, up by 3,710 since 2010.
This story was picked up by BBC Online and the Times, who both led on how the number of schools rated as good or outstanding has increased. While they also mention that a gap is forming between the number of primaries rated as good or outstanding and secondary schools, it should be noted that the total number of these schools receiving this grading is increasing nonetheless.
School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said:
Thanks to changes made by this government, there are now almost 1.8 million more pupils in good or outstanding schools than in August 2010 – including almost 420,000 additional good or outstanding school places in the last year.
Good and outstanding schools now make up 89% of all schools inspected in England - the highest proportion ever recorded – with both the proportion of primary and secondary schools judged at this rating continuing to rise in every region of the country.
But we know there is more to do, and that’s precisely why we have set out plans to make more good school places available, to more parents, in more parts of the country - including scrapping the ban on new grammar school places, and harnessing the resources and expertise of universities, independent and faith schools.
Initial Teacher Training census
Today, 24 November, the department published the Initial Teacher Training census for the academic year 2016/17 which shows how many people started ITT courses this September.
The figures show:
- We have achieved 100% of our primary target and 89% of our secondary target (the highest since 2011 - 500 more secondary trainees than last year).
- We recruited more trainees than we did last year in most Ebacc subjects and exceeded targets in Geography (116%), Biology (115%) and History (112%).
- The quality of entrants continues to be high, with 18% of this year’s cohort again holding a first-class degree.
- The proportion of ITT that is school-led continues to rise; it accounts for 56 per cent of all postgraduate ITT in 2016/17.
School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said:
These figures highlight that far from a profession in crisis, teaching continues to be an attractive career.
Secondary postgraduate recruitment is at its highest level since 2011 and we have recruited more trainees in key subjects including physics, maths, modern foreign languages, biology, chemistry and geography than we did last year. This is extremely encouraging at a time when the economic recovery is creating more employment opportunities for talented graduates in these subjects.
But we recognise that there are challenges which is why we are investing more than £1.3billion over this parliament so we can continue to attract the brightest and best into teaching.
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