Issue - meetings

This report provides the Panel with an overview of early-years & primary school education performance in the academic year 2021-22. This is the first year that schools have delivered formal examinations since 2019.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding introduced this report to the Panel and highlighted the following areas from within it.

He explained that this was the first year that schools have delivered formal examinations since 2019 and that the Panel is advised that this is an early indication of B&NES performance and that national/regional data sets are not yet available to provide a comparison in all areas.

He stated that Secondary school performance data is released from the 20th November 2022 and a full paper on education performance in B&NES will be produced in the Spring of 2023.

Compared to 2019 data, there has been a drop in the performance of primary

schools in B&NES. However, there has also been a drop nationally. Though

worse than in 2019, in the early years and KS1, B&NES's 2022 overall

performance is better than the national picture. However, in KS2, the reverse is true with B&NES data, indicating a worsening position of the combined data

overall.

Good Level of Development (GLD) measure - All children

·  Pre-pandemic - the Good Level of Development (GLD) outcomes for 'all children' in B&NES showed a steady improvement trend, above England comparisons. 74% of children achieved the GLD in 2019 (England 72%).

·  In 2022 this outcome lowered to 71.4%, but early unvalidated data suggests this decrease may be comparatively smaller than that in England (65.2%).

SEND

·  GLD outcomes for children with SEND in 2022 appear to have fallen, however, further validation of this data is needed before we can state by how much.

Free School Meals (FSM)

·  GLD outcomes for B&NES children in receipt of FSM have risen to 48% (+2%pts), whilst the outcomes for children not in receipt of FSM have fallen to 75% from 78% in 2019.

·  As a result of the combined FSM increase and non-FSM decrease, the FSM/ non-FSM gap has narrowed to 27%pts (32%pts in 2019).

Primary Performance

Phonics

·  Whilst performance is down on 2019, B&NES's overall phonics results have faired better than the national position.

·  However, within this, some groups are concerning. For example, our FSM/PP population of children appeared to have done less well in 2022 than their peers.

·  Though performance for children with SEND has dipped in this period compared to 2019, it is not significant or a greater percentage than children without SEND.

KS1 – Reading, Writing & Maths

·  Overall performance is down from 2019, but B&NES has fared slightly better across the three areas than the national position.

·  However, again, there are concerns to be looked at. At this stage, our FSM cohort has performed worse than the national rate for the FSM cohort in Reading, Writing and Maths.

·  Local data appears to indicate that performance for children with SEND in reading, writing and maths (though results are slightly down on 2019) has held up better in 2022 than non-SEND pupils.

KS2 – SATS Combined Reading, Writing & Maths

·  The combined Reading, Writing & Maths data is a worsening set of results compared  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60