Issue - meetings

Educational attainment has broad benefits on health, wealth and happiness. Inequalities in educational attainment between children from more and less affluent backgrounds is an issue nationally and has worsened in recent years.  

The Consultant in Public Health introduced the report and highlighted the following areas.

The Challenge

Addressing inequality - At key stage 2: Disadvantaged pupils doing less well in B&NES than nationally e.g. 30% reaching expected standard at KS2 compared to 44% nationally. The gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils is large, with an attainment gap of 36% compared to 23% nationally.

At key stage 4: In 2022/23 in B&NES the attainment gap at KS4 had relatively narrowed and was more in line with the national attainment gap, though still wider. The gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils remains large.

Ambition - Reduce the attainment gaps by improving the performance of disadvantaged pupils across B&NES.

Whole system approach to reducing the attainment gap

In an average year, children spend around 20-24% of their waking hours in school and so around 76-80% of their waking hours outside of school. Socio-economic factors and the physical environment account for 30-55% of our health outcomes – the same factors also play a crucial role in education attainment.

The wider environment in which children and young people grow up in therefore has a huge role to play. As B&NES Council and system partners are in a position to influence some of these wider or core determinants, a whole systems approach to addressing the attainment gap helpful.

Project aim and methodology 

Aim: Investigate the potential causes of the educational attainment gap in B&NES, with a focus on the core determinants of health outside of school settings, and make recommendations as to how a whole systems approach could help address the gap.

Research / potential solutions

What does the data tell us? What does the published and grey literature tell us? / What do professionals and young people tell us? / 60 + interviews and focus groups.

Multi partner task and finish group (Met 4 times – the final one as a workshop).

Triangulated findings inform Action Plan.

What the data tells us… 

In primary schools in B&NES, the number of FSM pupils has almost doubled from 1,238 in 2015/16 to 2,407 in 2022/23 in B&NES (an increase from 9% to 18%). Poor attainment in the disadvantaged cohort is not restricted to a few schools in B&NES, but is more widespread?, and across rural and urban areas.

There is a very weak association between the size of the disadvantaged cohort and attainment in the disadvantaged cohort in schools in B&NES. Schools in B&NES with 40% or more disadvantaged pupils have the lowest attainment for both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils (does not indicate causality).

Interviewees / Focus group participants

Education settings: The Hut / First Steps Twerton / St Martins Garden Primary / East Harptree and Ubley Primary / Oldfield School / Bath College / Director of Secondary, Lighthouse Partnership Trust.

B&NES Council: Head of Virtual School / Head of SEND / Education Inclusion Officer / Educational Psychologist / Welfare support.

Young people: Via Off the Record  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89