Agenda item

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 to our data in 2019.

·  The percentage of girls achieving the expected standard has significantly dropped from 2019, still outperforming boys, but not as significant as in 2019.

·  The combined expected performance for children with SEND appears to have dropped comparably with their non-SEND peers in 2022.

Further validation will be needed before we can confidently confirm these figures.

The Local Authority remains committed to achieving the best for all our pupils and officers will attend the meeting of the School’s Standards Board next week.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked how reliable was the current data that has been received.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that it was as accurate as it currently could be.

Councillor Hardman commented that it was frustrating that the Local Authority was not in control of the majority of its schools and said she looked forward to receiving further information in March 2023 and urged the Council to participate with Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) as much as possible.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that a representative from the Regional Director’s office was open to attending a future Panel meeting and that possibly they could invite a MAT Chief Executive as well.

Councillor Paul May said that he welcomed receiving this report and stated that early intervention in SEND needs to be a priority, especially the SEMH element (Social, Emotional & Mental Health).

Kevin Burnett asked if any difference in results had been seen in KS1 from the seven primary schools that had received input from the St. John’s Foundation.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that this had been the first full year of the Primary Empowerment Programme and that an evaluation of the project would take place in due course. He added that the Foundation have indicated that they see this as a long-term commitment.

The Director of Children’s Services & Education commented that she understood that an evaluation would take place in January 2023.

Councillor Ruth Malloy asked what the Local Authority / Councillors could do to improve attainment. She also commented on whether the use of volunteers could be promoted to help ease some pressure on teachers in terms of individual support.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that the work of the St. John’s Foundation was an ongoing project to improve outcomes for children & young people and that this would hopefully give an indication of how the attainment gap can be improved.

Kevin Burnett asked for reference to be made to the National Tutoring Programme in the report that will produced in March 2023.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that he could ask schools for their view of the programme.

The Chairman asked for a section on the roles of volunteers within schools to be included in the next report.

The Panel RESOLVED to note that;

i)  Education performance in our primary schools is down on the last

comparable year of 2019. However, in most areas, the performance of our schools is better than the national position. There are areas of concern, particularly in key stage 2 and the results of our free school meal (FSM) & pupil premium (PP) children, that requires further analysis.

ii)  While most schools in B&NES are academies, the LA continues to be actively involved in working alongside the Regional Directors (RD) office (formally the Regional Schools Commissioners office) in identifying education priorities for the region. This year's results will be looked at jointly with the RD office and common priorities will be identified. A representative from RD has again agreed to come to scrutiny to talk about their work.

iii)  The LA continues to have positive relationships with Academies and Multi Academy trusts, and significant common gaps in academic performance are discussed and tackled at our Schools Standards Board. Scrutiny has previously been advised of the multiple initiatives that the LA/Schools is working on to tackle our attainment gap with the support of the St. Johns Foundation.