Thousands of children subjected to second-rate education in East Midlands, warns Ofsted chief

The East Midlands is currently the joint lowest performing Ofsted region in terms of inspection outcomes, with almost one in three secondary schools judged less than 'good'

Sir Michael Wilshaw said the figures were indicative of a growing divide between the north and south of England (PA)

Low standards in schools across the East Midlands are exposing the “educational fault line”, dividing the nation, Ofsted’s chief inspector has warned.

Speaking at a teaching conference on Tuesday, Sir Michael Wilshaw highlighted figures showing that the East Midlands is the worst performing region in the country in terms of schooling.

He blamed a “culture of complacency” and a lack of clear accountability for poor education performance overall across the region.

"The problems in this region symbolise more than anywhere else the growing educational divide between the South and the rest of England," he added.

The comments come on the same day that Ofsted’s regional director for the East Midlands, Chris Russell, published an open letter to all those responsible for education in Northamptonshire.

In the letter, Mr Russell said: “There are too many early years providers and schools of all types and phases that are not good enough. As a result, children do not achieve as well as they should.”

“I am particularly concerned that at primary level, higher-ability pupils are not being supported to achieve as well as they should. Inspectors report that teachers are not making sure that the most able pupils are sufficiently challenged and that, as a result, they are not making sufficient progress.”

In his speech, Mr Wilshaw pointed out that problems in terms of underachievement are a concern for the whole East Midlands region. The region also had the worst GCSE results in England last year, with nearly 46 per cent of pupils failing to achieve five or more A* to C grades including English and maths.

Both Ofsted heads have raised concerns that disadvantaged children in the region are likely to be most affected by the poor quality of education available to them. Nearly 73 per cent of East Midlands’ pupils eligible for free school meals failed to achieve the benchmark number of passes at GCSE, demonstrating that children in care did worse than in any other region.

Mr Wilshaw said: “These statistics should serve as a wake-up call. The poor quality of education in many parts of the East Midlands often passes under the radar as attention is focused on underperformance in the bigger cities of the North and West Midlands, like Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.”

Responding to his concerns, the NASUWT teachers' union said school and local authorities “must be give the support” necessary for standards of education are to improve.

A spokesperson from the National Association of Head Teachers said: “We need to get beyond the crude labelling of whole regions. It shows a threadbare strategy. The truth is there are great schools and struggling schools in the East Midlands, like every region of the country. It is hard to see how broad generalisations like this take us any further forward in raising standards.”