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More than a third of English schools are failing pupils, according to inspectors. One in five 11-year-olds leaves primary school below the level expected for their age in English and maths, Ofsted says in its annual report.

More than half of England’s teenagers leave school without five GCSEs graded A to C, including English and maths.

Christine Gilbert, Chief Inspector of Schools, said that England must improve if it is to compare favourably with the rest of the world. In her third annual report Ms Gilbert said she was concerned that there was still too much variation in achievement between different areas of the country.

Poorer children, such as those who qualify for free school meals, are less likely to get five good GCSEs including English and maths than their more well-off peers. In 2007, only 21 per cent of children on free school meals achieved this benchmark, compared with 49 per cent of other pupils.

Poor quality services exist across the education and care sectors for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, Ms Gilbert said, and there was a strong link across every sector between deprivation and poor quality services.

“This means that children and families already experiencing relative deprivation face further inequity in the quality of care and support for their welfare, learning and development,” she said.

“In short, if you are poor you are more likely to receive poor services: disadvantage compounds disadvantage.”

It was possible to buck this trend, she said, and there were examples of places that were outstanding.

“Typically the provision that really makes a difference is ambitious. It does not believe that anyone’s past or present circumstances should define their future.”

Jim Knight, Schools Minister, said that he would “accelerate” the process of closing the gap in achievement between rich and poor. “Supporting the wider needs of children and families is at the heart of our Children’s Plan reforms to tackle disadvantage and poverty,” he said.

Today’s report covers the first full year of Ofsted’s new wider remit: it now inspects and regulates social care, children’s services, adult learning and skills, as well as schools and childcare.

It found improvements in school standards, with 15 per cent of schools judged to be outstanding, up slightly from 14 per cent last year. In primaries that figure was 13 per cent while in secondaries 17 per cent.

More than a third of schools (37 per cent) were found to be not good enough and given a rating of “satisfactory” or “inadequate”.

More than four in ten (43 per cent) of secondary schools were rated no better than satisfactory, although this was down from 49 per cent in 2006-07. In primaries this figure was 37 per cent.

Nursery schools had some of the best ratings, with 39 per cent judged to be outstanding and 58 per cent rated good. Only 3 per cent were rated satisfactory and there were none that were inadequate.

A higher proportion of childcare and early education was good or outstanding this year. But the quality of provision varies, and it is not as good in areas with high deprivation.

The report said that teaching literacy and numeracy skills must “remain a priority” and while there was evidence of improvements in these areas, in some progress was still too slow.

It said that more needed to be done to raise standards at GCSE level. “A decade ago, two-thirds of secondary age pupils left compulsory education with five good GCSEs, including English and maths — it is still more than half.”

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