Rex
More than a THIRD of schools are still struggling – and poor teaching is to blame, according to the latest Ofsted findings.
The schools watchdog visited primaries and secondaries in July and September and found 35 per cent of them sadly lacking.
Ofsted said fewer than one in seven of the 873 schools recently inspected were awarded its highest mark of outstanding - down from one in five.
The findings follow in the wake of Ofsted's annual report in which it warned that too many state schools were being let down by "variable" standards of teaching.
It discovered that under performing schools relied too heavily on worksheets and a narrow range of textbooks during lessons, while teachers spent too long talking and set "low-level" tasks that failed to develop pupils' knowledge.
Ofsted currently rate schools on a four-point scale – inadequate, satisfactory, good and outstanding. From next year, inspections will be subjected to further reform, with Ofsted rating schools on four key areas: teaching, pupil achievement, behaviour and leadership.
A spokesman for the Department for Education told the Daily Telegraph: "We're driving up standards across the board – recruiting the brightest graduates and giving them outstanding training.
"The tough new inspection regime coming into force next month will root out weak teaching. There is compelling evidence shows that poor teaching has a critical link with bad behaviour – it's right take a hard line on this."