Agenda item

A comprehensive Annual Schools’ Performance Report has been produced.  This report provides the 2015 education results at each key stage for Medway’s schools and academies. The report summarises the performance from teacher assessments, tests and examinations.   It also includes information on attendance and exclusions for 2013 - 14, the latest school year for which national data has been published

The report is designed to give Members, Head teachers, Parents and Governors a wide overview of pupil progress in Medway schools and to show comparative performance with schools in other local authority areas. 

Discussion:

The Interim Assistant Director, School Effectiveness and Inclusion introduced the report, which provided the Committee with the 2015 education results at each key stage for Medway’s schools and academies.  She explained the importance of the Committee to understand the data, which consisted of published information. She highlighted that the bar for expected levels of performance were being increased for 2016 and that the particular areas of concern were performance in relation to Key Stages 2, 4 and 5 and in relation to exclusion rates.

·           Transfer of data – a Member suggested that officers liaise with primary schools about improving the quality and timeliness of data given to secondary schools relating to the special educational needs (SEN) of children transferring to Year 7, so that secondary schools can improve their readiness for children as they begin their new school.

·           Variance between provisional and validated data – in response to a question relating to the variance between the provisional and validated data, officers explained that there had been some differences and emphasised the importance of the Committee scrutinising the published factual data.  It was also explained that the local authority was reliant on schools sharing provisional data, which was more difficult with the rise of academies.

·           Correlation between exclusions and SEN and academies – A question was raised about the possible correlation between exclusions and how many related to children with SEN and also how many were from academies, compared to local authority maintained schools.  In response officers explained that there was some correlation between children being excluded on a fixed-term basis and not having their learning needs met.  The local authority was working with schools to provide a package of support from educational psychologists that would be more proactive in improving standards and reducing exclusions.  Officers also confirmed that there had been a rise in exclusions as more schools in Medway become academies, which could also be attributable to the pressures in relation to attainment, however, it was added that the package of support being offered was to support all schools, including academies.

·           Differences between performance of schools with similar social profile and the same academy trust – A question was asked about what can cause variances in performance between schools with a similar social profile and where they are managed by the same academy trust.  Officers explained that for some schools there was a history of poor performance which took some time to address but confirmed that leadership was key in inspiring good quality teaching and moving a school’s culture and expectations forward.  The point was also made by officers that due to the existence of grammar schools in Medway, some variance of performance between secondary schools would be expected but that the gap between these needed to be reduced.

·           Performance of white British boys – In response to a question about what interventions were being taken to improve the performance of white British boys, whose performance was nationally worse than all other groups of children, officers explained that there was a number of measures.  The Continuous Professional Development offer was a large part of that, in equipping teachers to raise expectations and ambitions and to enable them to support pupils in a bespoke way.  Some schools were also working with local universities, for example to do some targeted work in higher level mathematics and there was also a visit planned to an outstanding school in London where teachers could learn some practical examples of teaching to take back to their classrooms.

·           Supporting families – in response to a question about how parents and carers were supported to champion and motivate their children to succeed, officers referred to partnership working with libraries and with Beanstalk, which was a charity a number of schools were working with to encourage children and their families to read together and to guide parents in how this can be done to achieve the best outcomes.  Officers also referred to Saturday groups, fathers only groups and booster classes which were key to improve attainment amongst children with the support of their families.

·           Performance of sponsor led academies – in response to a concern raised about the performance of sponsor led academies, officers explained that in most cases these types of academies related to schools that had previously been underperforming.  If performance remained poor then the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) could decide to change the academy sponsor if it was felt the initial sponsor was not being effective in sustained and paced improvement.  Where the local authority had concerns, these were raised frequently with the RSC.

·           Impact of English as an additional language (EAL) – in response to a question about whether having a higher percentage of pupils with EAL had an impact on performance, officers explained that there were schools within areas in London with high EAL who achieved good results and so this fact, along with the lower attainment of white British boys, negated this argument.  It was explained that children with EAL often learn very quickly and the important issue was to ensure that teachers have the confidence in relation to EAL and to find ways of communicating with parents of children with EAL who may speak little or no English.

·           Sharing of the annual report – in response to a question about the circulation of the annual report, officers confirmed that it would be circulated to all partners, including Headteachers, Chairs of Governors, Diocese Boards and Academy Trusts.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.