School inspectors have raised ‘serious concerns’ about the quality of education in Cumbria, urging the county council to provide ‘urgent’ support.
A letter sent by Ofsted to Cumbria CC’s chief executive, Diane Wood, has warned there are ‘too few’ good secondary schools in the north-western county, with a high proportion of establishments requiring improvement or being judged as inadequate.
Concerns were raised following inspection of secondary schools in Cumbria between 1 November and 20 December last year.
Of the county’s 37 secondary schools, 18 are academies and remain independent from the management of Cumbria CC.
Cumbria’s 16-year-olds have been ‘significantly below’ the national average over the past two years and the gap is continuing to widen, according to Ofsted.
Discussions with head teachers over the inspection period uncovered only a minority believe Cumbria CC knew their school well, with some indicating local authority support remained ‘too reactive and dependent on the outcome of inspections, rather than nipping problems in the bud’.
However, Ofsted acknowledged ‘pockets of good teaching’ in almost all of the inspected schools, alongside signs of ‘improving leadership and better governance’.
‘There are too few good secondary schools in Cumbria and things are not improving. There is little evidence of an effective shared strategy improving the quality of education across the county,’ the letter from Ofsted regional director, North West, Michael Cladingbowl, said.
‘There is an urgent need for the local authority to provide greater challenge and support to its secondary schools and extend partnership working.’
Cabinet member for children’s services at Cumbria CC, Cllr Anne Burns, said: ‘We accept Ofsted’s analysis of the current situation and know there is much more to do to ensure all Cumbrian secondary schools are providing the quality of education that parents and pupils have a right to expect.
‘It’s also right to point out that 65% of Cumbria secondary school pupils attend a school that is “good’ or ‘outstanding” – we want that to be 100%, but we should not lose sight of the fact Cumbria does have many great schools.
‘The council’s role is to monitor challenge, support and, in exceptional circumstances, intervene in schools to ensure standards are being met. But headteachers and school governors have first responsibility for their school’s performance; the days when the county council could routinely intervene are long gone.
‘It’s not acceptable that we have schools that are judged to be inadequate and in each of those cases we are working with the schools to develop robust improvement plans which will rapidly deliver the change that is needed,’ Burns concluded.