No more excuses for mediocre schools When Paul Pennyfeather is looking for teaching work in Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall, he visits the offices of Church and Gargoyle, scholastic agents. There, he is informed that they class schools by four grades: Leading School, First-Rate School, Good School and School. "Frankly," he is told, " 'School" is pretty bad..." Today, the terms have changed slightly: Ofsted categorises schools as "outstanding," "good," "satisfactory" and "inadequate." Otherwise, the only difference is that it is not just the final class of school that is "pretty bad." "Satisfactory," as Sir Michael Wilshaw, the new chief inspector of schools, admitted yesterday, means "not really satisfactory at all." And it is a category into which 28 per cent of schools in England fall. Sensibly, Sir Michael has decided to replace the term with a more accurate alternative: "requires improvement." Such schools, as the Prime Minister confirmed, will be inspected every 12-18 months, rather than every three years as at present; if they fail to raise their grade by the third time of asking, they will be placed in special measures. This is entirely welcome. The lazy, euphemistic language that has infested the education system over the years has only created excuses for mediocrity to flourish. As Sir Michael showed in turning Mossbourne Academy in Hackney into an educational beacon, there is no reason that such mediocrity has to endure. David Cameron's war on "coasting comprehensives" will only work if complacency is stripped away in all its forms - and the fact that Christine Blower of the NUT could label his efforts "derogatory and insulting to pupils, teachers, school leaders and governors" suggests that he is very much on the right track. By themselves, Ofsted's reforms will not transform the education system. For one thing, knowing how good a school is means little if you cannot find a space for your child elsewhere. For another, Ofsted's ratings are far from perfect, since they bundle up the quality of teaching - about which parents care passionately - with an array of other boxes to tick. It is right to say that "satisfactory" schools are no such thing, but it is also true that some "good" or "outstanding" schools are good chiefly at gaming the system. Yet yesterday's announcement is only part of a wider picture. Little by little, Mr Cameron and his Education Secretary, Michael Gove, are exposing the rot within the education system, and taking bold and imaginative measures to fix its many problems. We should not expect instant results, or easy victories. But these education reforms have the potential to be the Government's greatest legacy to the nation.