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Secondary schools are almost twice as likely to be marked down for attendance and behaviour in inspections as primary schools, according to the latest Ofsted statistics.

Around 22 per cent of secondary schools inspected to date were judged to be below the “expected standard” in the inspectorate’s attendance and behaviour evaluation area.

This compares with just 13 per cent of primary schools, Ofsted from November 2025 to March 2026 reveals.

The data covers the outcomes from Ofsted’s report card inspections, which judge schools using a five-point grading scale across six different evaluation areas.

Schools are now rated as “exceptional”, “strong standard”, “expected standard”, “needs attention” or “urgent improvement” in each area.

Attendance and behaviour grading ‘monitored’

Ofsted has previously been warned that combining attendance and behaviour into a single judgement risks “punishing” schools in difficult contexts and masking schools’ successes.

Yesterday, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver told MPs on the Commons Education Select Committee that he is “monitoring” whether combining the two areas “is a healthy tension”.

However, he told MPs that the grades being awarded in this evaluation area are “more positive than has been portrayed”.

Overall, the data shows that 85 per cent of schools were graded as being at the “expected standard” or better on attendance and behaviour.

The results also show that achievement remains the area where the lowest proportion of schools are rated below the “expected standard”.

Achievement grades

Attendance and behaviour is the evaluation area with the starkest difference between primary and secondary schools.

But Ofsted’s latest data also shows that a higher proportion of secondary schools were rated as being below the “expected standard” on achievement than primaries.

Some 29 per cent of primary schools were below the “expected standard” for achievement, compared with 33 per cent of secondary schools.

However, there is also a higher proportion of secondary schools above the “expected standard”. The data shows 20 per cent of secondaries being graded better than the “expected standard” compared with 16 per cent of primaries.

The inspectorate’s findings also confirm previous ����Vlog analysis showing that around nine in 10 schools are achieving “expected standard” or above for inclusion.