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Specialist schools doing better

Specialist schools are performing better and improving faster than other schools, but greater efforts are needed to maintain the momentum of the specialist school programme across the specialist subject.

Specialist School: A second evaluation, published by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), investigates the quality of education in specialist schools and evaluates trends in their performance compared with the national pattern. It also looks at the improvements made since Ofsted's first report into specialist schools in 2001.

Five out of six of the schools visited for this report are now meeting the aims of the specialist schools programme. Pupils in specialist schools have performed better at GCSE than pupils in other schools since 1998 and the rate of improvement in results at GCSE continues to be faster in specialist schools than in other schools.

David Bell, Chief Inspector of Schools, said: "Being a specialist school makes a difference. Working to declared targets, dynamic leadership, a renewed sense of purpose, targeted use of funding and being a contributor to an optimistic network of like-minded schools, all contribute to a climate for improvement and drive forward change."

Inspectors found that the range and quality of the curriculum have improved in specialist schools since Ofsted's first report and pupils have a broader choice of options in lessons. More pupils are now participating in extra-curricular activities, such as extra coaching lessons in sport.

There has been a major turn-around in the services and resources specialist schools provide to the wider community, for example specialist language schools offering language classes to adults. Ofsted's 2001 report criticised specialist schools for not having effective links with their communities but this time inspectors found that the work they carried out with partner primary schools and local community groups was a strength of the programme.

The survey found no evidence to suggest that other schools located nearby were disadvantaged by having a specialist school in the area. There was also no evidence to suggest that the balance of the curriculum was distorted by having a specialist subject.

Although pupils perform better in specialist schools at GCSE than in non-specialist schools inspectors found the rate of improvement in specialist subjects has levelled off in the last three years and in some subjects has declined. In 2003 both music and drama results in arts colleges were slightly below the national averages. Less than half of the schools visited met their targets for the percentage of pupils attaining grade C or better at GCSE in all their specialist subjects and few schools could adequately account for these shortfalls.

Despite the improvements identified since Ofsted's first report inspectors found that there were significant variations in performance across the different types of specialist schools and between schools.

"Specialist schools must ensure that the drive for improvement is maintained,” David Bell said. “The variations in performance between specialist schools must be addressed to ensure that all types of specialist schools are consistently of the same high standard in all areas of teaching and learning."