Why the new inspection framework still marks down schools in deprived areas, and how to fix it.
I grew up near Ladypool Road in Sparkbrook, and won a place at a selective grammar across the city. The children in my area were never the problem. The problem is a system that grades their schools against a national average those schools were never set up to meet.
In November 2025, after the death of headteacher Ruth Perry, Ofsted replaced single-word judgements with graded report cards. The labels changed. The structure did not.
The achievement grade still measures results against the national average, so schools with poorer intakes are marked down however well they teach. The grades are also stricter than before. A school must now clear every descriptor to reach "Expected", so a school rated Good in the past can read as "Needs Attention" for the same work.
The gap is not new. Historically, 68 per cent of the least deprived secondaries have always been rated good or better, against just 15 per cent of the most deprived.
In practice · Sparkbrook
When Golden Hillock relaunched as Ark Boulton in 2015, the same pupils and community moved from special measures to Good. Yet in the record it counts as a brand new school with no past. The system cannot even see a school improve.
There is a proven, affordable alternative. From 2006 to 2010, England already measured every school on contextual value-added, which credits the progress pupils make from their own starting point, adjusted for disadvantage. A Labour government introduced it, and the data behind it is still collected, so restoring it would cost little.
Applied across the whole journey a child takes, from primary through secondary to college in their area, and used to target support rather than deliver a single verdict, it would judge schools for the work they actually do.