More schools are being judged inadequate under a new inspection regime, figures from England's schools watchdog Ofsted show.

Half of the 2140 schools inspected in the autumn were found to be either satisfactory or inadequate.

The proportion of schools classed as inadequate has more than doubled to 10% , compared with 4% in the 2008/2009 inspection period.

Schools now have to achieve higher results to be good or outstanding.

The watchdog has insisted its new-style inspections would "raise the bar" on its expectations of schools.

Only 9% of schools have been given the top rating of outstanding - compared with 19% of those inspected in the academic year of 2008/9.

A total of 40% of the schools inspected were marked down as satisfactory.

A spokesman for Ofsted has said: "We have made it clear that every time an inspection framework is revised, expectations are raised too."

But John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News: "I don't think it [Ofsted] is serving parents very well in the comparative views it is providing."

Opinion divided

Chris Richardson, head teacher at the Kings of Wessex School in Somerset, said the new inspection framework brought "significant improvements", particularly a sharper focus on student achievement.

"A new self-evaluation form meant we felt well prepared for inspection and it gave the inspectors a good overview of the school.

"Our students valued the opportunities to engage with the inspectors and give their perspective on the school."

But John Fairhurst, head of Shenfield High School in Essex, said the new inspection framework had downgraded his school from good with outstanding features to satisfactory, simply because the school's GCSE results in 2008 were weak.

"It's become a rather skimpy inspection with an altered agenda - heavily data driven," he said.

"The framework proved, in our case, superficial and underestimated the good work of the school."

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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