Talented pupils are too often set “ridiculously easy” tasks during their first few years of secondary school in England, wasting opportunities to develop the most able into academic high flyers, according to a report by Ofsted.

The schools regulator complained that little progress had been made in the last two years after it first identified what it said was a failure by state secondary schools to sustain the performance of the most able students.

“While inspectors found pockets of excellence, too many of these children are not being challenged sufficiently – and thousands of highly performing primary pupils are not realising their early promise when they move to secondary school,” said Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director for schools.

The report included data showing that a third of pupils at non-selective schools who achieved highest grades in tests at the end of primary school went on to achieve the top grades of A and A* in GCSE exams in 2014.

But students with the same primary school performance who attended selective or grammar schools were far more likely to achieve the highest grades at GCSE – 57% compared with 32% in non-selective schools.

Ofsted’s report focused on the challenge offered to bright pupils at key stage 3 – the first three years of secondary schooling in England, for 12-14 year-olds – which it said often lacked the rigour of later stages, when pupils take GCSE and A-levels.

“It is especially disappointing to find that, almost two years on from our first report, the same problems remain. I hope school leaders see this report as a call to action – and raise the bar higher for their most able pupils,” Harford said.

The Department for Education disagreed with Ofsted’s assessment that no progress had been made.



It argued that new accountability measures – which take into account a wider range of subjects and performance – and tougher exams would tackle the problem.



“Our plan for education is designed to shine a bright light on schools which are coasting, or letting the best and brightest fall by the wayside,” a DfE spokesman said.

“That is why we are replacing the discredited system which rewarded schools where the largest numbers of pupils scraped a C grade at GCSE.”



Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, said Labour would establish a “gifted and talented” fund to equip schools to stretch the most able.

“For Britain to succeed, we need to make the most of the talents of all of our young people,” he said.

“But young people, especially those from low and middle income backgrounds, are all too often not given the challenge and support that they need to fulfil their potential.”

Ofsted’s claim – that children who achieve top grades at primary school should go on to achieve top grades in later exams – was challenged as inaccurate and unrealistic by new research published on Wednesday.

Rebecca Allen, director of Education Datalab – a specialist education statistics startup – said its research showed the majority of pupils did not follow linear paths for academic attainment but instead showed considerable movement.

“It simply isn’t reasonable to assume that a child who gains a level 5 [at key stage 2, in primary school] should go on to get an A or an A*,” Allen said.

According to the research, only one in 10 pupils make predictable progress at each stage, while most children will perform better or worse than their expected attainment on one or two occasions.

The Ofsted findings come as the DfE faces a tricky political decision over whether to approve the opening of what would effectively be a new grammar school in Kent.

Although opening new grammar schools is barred under legislation, the latest effort is an attempt to exploit a loophole that allows existing schools to expand.

Pressure on the Conservative party to allow Weald of Kent grammar school in Tonbridge to expand – by building a new campus almost nine miles away in Sevenoaks – has been growing since Ukip’s success in recent polls.



A decision to go ahead will be challenged in the courts, given the distance between the two sites.



