Ofsted chief: Primary school spelling and grammar skills not being developed at secondary

Work to improve primary school students' spelling and grammar is being "lost" when they move to secondary school, the head of Ofsted has warned, with the same rigour and structure to learning not sufficiently continued.

The effect is "particularly damaging" for highly capable students from poorer backgrounds, schools chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said.

He revealed he had "great cause of concern" about the transition from primary to secondary education.

He described it as "little short of a tragedy" that thousands of children who achieve high marks aged 11 then fail to "fulfil their potential" when it came to their GCSEs.

He pointed to figures in 2014 which showed around 5,000 disadvantaged pupils, who attained the highest levels at the end of Key Stage Two, had failed to achieve a grade B in English and mathematics at the age of 16.

His comments were made in the first of a series of monthly commentaries.