Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of maintained primary schools previously rated as outstanding by Ofsted that retain that status in the event that they (a) remain maintained schools, (b) become a single-academy trust and (c) join a multi-academy trust.

Based on Ofsted’s management information from June 2022, of the primary schools that were rated as outstanding as a maintained school at their previous inspection (1,743 schools):

• Of those that remained as local authority-maintained schools (1,146 schools), 27% (309 schools) were outstanding at their most recent inspection.
• Of those that became single-academy trusts (70 schools), 29% (20 schools) were outstanding at their most recent inspection.
• Of those that joined a multi-academy trust (527 schools), 30% (156 schools) were outstanding at their most recent inspection.

Between 15 May 2012 and 13 November 2020, maintained primary and secondary schools, and academies judged to be outstanding in their overall effectiveness at their most recent Section 5 inspection, were exempt from routine inspections under Section 5. This means that many of the schools included in these figures will have been reinspected, specifically because there was reason to suspect the school was no longer outstanding.