Ofsted war on ‘scrappy’ worksheets

Good schools risk being downgraded if they ‘tolerate scrappy worksheets’ and fail to give pupils high quality textbooks, the head of Ofsted warned yesterday.

Sir Michael Wilshaw said that too many secondary schools ‘have conceded defeat’ over providing adequate materials to students for class study and homework.

He demanded that all schools ‘fight the good fight on this basic issue’ of encouraging youngsters to be supplied with proper text and library books.

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Sir Michael said that data from the education charity, the Sutton Trust, ‘should alarm us all’.

Over a third of ‘highly able’ boys eligible for free school meals in England fail to achieve a good set of GCSEs despite thriving at primary school, and the situation for bright girls from disadvantaged backgrounds is ‘not much better’.

Sir Michael, who was previously executive principal of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, east London, said: ‘So we need great leaders in our education system from the early years upwards.

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