Agenda item

To report on the latest data concerning educational attainment and performance as well as action to address school improvement and under performance.

James Page, Chief Executive of Haringey Education Partnership, reported on recent education attainment and performance statistics, as outlined in the report.  He highlighted the following:

·         In Early Years, there had been a considerable improvement in those pupils reaching the good level of development (GLD) standard from 50% in 2013 to 75% in 2019 and current performance was above the London  and national average;

·         In Key Stage (KS) 1, outcomes for the expected and greater depth standards were both above national averages in all subjects;

·         For KS2 attainment, all subjects were in line with or above national averages at expected standard level. 66% of Haringey pupils achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which was above national but below the London average.  Performance for reading within this had suffered a dip of 3.5% though.  At greater depth standard, reading, writing and maths combined and writing separately were all above the London average;

·         GCSE performance (KS4) had been strong.  It was above the national average but below that for London.  In respect of Progress 8 scores, these were higher than both the national and London averages;

·         ‘A’ Level performance was also strong and the borough’s results were 50th nationally.   The number of young people taking vocational courses within the borough at post 16 level was very small though; and

·         There was evidence that Turkish and Black Caribbean young people were not performing to the same levels as other groups.

Panel Members felt that the overall figures for the borough masked the impact of poverty by smoothing out considerable variations in performance between schools.  Data on performance levels in different schools would be better able to highlight this.  Children being tested in phonics were likely to find the tests very challenging if English was not their first language, especially if their mother tongue was not phonetically based.

Mr Page stated that there was a considerable amount of data available, including details of performance by individual schools as well as different groups within the borough.  Variance between schools was tracked.  Disadvantage was a major factor influencing performance and schools who were able to buck the trend were of particular interest.   However, some lack and minority ethnic (BAME) groups were performing less well than the disadvantaged group as a whole and there were a range of other factors that also influenced performance.  Work was being undertaken to address BAME achievement and, in particular, black Caribbean children and young people.  Having English as an additional language could be factor for some younger children but the underperformance of some groups was present at all stages.  The levels of underperformance were also greater for these groups with English as an additional language than in comparable local authorities.  He reported that there was currently a programme to train an expert cadre of EAL trainers.

Panel Members expressed disappointment that there was a lack of detail in the report on programmes to address the performance issues that the test and exam results had revealed.  They requested that future reports provided evidence that programmes were in place to respond to the issues highlighted within the data as well as targets and outcomes arising from action being taken.  This would provide reassurance to the Panel that progress was being made. It was noted that statistics for those pupils categorised as disadvantaged would have been affected by the reduction in entitlement for free school meals.

In answer to a question regarding the sharing of best practice, Mr Page stated that it would be possible to provide scatter plots showed the comparative performance of different schools.  There was a considerable amount of peer to peer work undertaken to spread best practice, which included work through the networked learning communities, the schools partnership programme and peer to peer reviews.

AGREED:

That future reports on educational attainment and performance provide:

·         Data on the comparative performance of schools within the borough; and

·         Clear evidence that programmes are in place to respond to  performance issues highlighted within the data, including targets and outcomes.