Agenda item

School Performance and Narrowing the Gap

To receive and consider a report giving details of the preliminary provisional data for 2016.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the School Performance and Narrowing the Gaps; Preliminary Provisional Data for 2016 report which was set out in agenda pages 25-38.

 

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Councillor Miall asked that figures be included in the report as well as percentages to enable a clearer understanding of the data.  Numbers should be provided throughout the whole report;

·           The Chairman endorsed the request for the inclusion of figures and also asked that the final report in March include types of school (for example free school, academy, maintained);

·           Councillor Younis noted that where the report referred to 50% of special schools, this related to one school as there were only two special schools in the Borough;

·           Councillor Dolinski raised concern about the decline in the GCSE results.  Alan explained that schools were focusing on the new assessment system and not on the GCSE results.  Alan stated that despite this result, Wokingham had the thirteenth best GCSE result nationally;

·           Alan stated that Wokingham secondary schools were in the top 10% of schools in the country;

·           Members were interested to know more about the journey from entry to leaving school.  Alan stated that schools faced a challenging situation when children came from high attaining primary schools, it was difficult to demonstrate progress;

·           The Chairman asked for value added figures of KS1 and KS2, Alan agreed to provide these in the final report;

·           Councillor Haitham Taylor pointed out that although there may be some variation in schools results, on the whole most schools had done really well;

·           Councillor Swaddle asked that where there were references to the national average, that the figures be included too;

·           Councillor Soane noted that ‘writing’ was a weak area in Wokingham.  He asked if this issue related to specific schools or to all schools in the Borough.  Alan explained that this was an issue from Early Years to KS2, but not for GCSE level onwards.  There were no concerns over reading, grammar and punctuation.  Alan stated that writing was a key focus and had been improving for the past three years as demonstrated in the graph on page 30 of the agenda.  This was the result of work undertaken with Early Years to improve writing.  Alan informed that nine schools had been identified as needing improvement in writing and School Improvement Officers were working with these schools.  Alan stated that he had visited schools and that he felt confident that children’s writing was good, some of the work he saw at years 5 and 6, a few years ago would have been acceptable at year 8.  It was not the case that children could not write; but their reading and gramma tended to be better.  Alan stated that phonics had achieved a 96% pass test rate, which was much higher than three years ago;

·           The Chairman asked what could be done in relation to the gap between boys and girls performance.  Alan informed that the following actions were being undertaken by the Local Authority to tackle the gap:

o   Analysing data

o   Individualising targets

o   Challenging Headteachers

o   Looking to use IT to motivate boys

·           The Chairman noted that most primary schools teachers were women, and this was not helpful for boys;

·           Councillor Swaddle asked if boys were taught separately from girls at secondary level.  Alan stated that they were not and that there were mixed reviews on this type of approach;

·           Judith Ramsden was more concerned as to why Wokingham girls were not outperforming their peers nationally;

·           In response to a question, Judith confirmed that libraries were actively encouraging all in the community to use their services; 

·           The Chairman asked that the report include the GCSE results of Wokingham children attending neighbouring authorities schools (for example Yately and Edgbarrow schools).  The Chairman explained that Wokingham Without ward did not have a Wokingham school as a designated area school;

·           Councillor Younis felt it would be useful to know the data around GCSE results of boys and girls.  He believed that once boys matured the attainment gap closed but he would like to see evidence of this;

·           The Chairman was pleased to note the effort that had been put into narrowing the gap and the initiatives described in the report;

·           Councillor Younis asked how Officers ensured that Pupil Premium was used effectively.  Alan stated that there were checks in schools carried out by School Premium Officers.  Judith stated that there were conversations with Headteachers; Officers evaluated the impact more often than Ofsted, and schools were obliged to show the audit trail for Pupil Premium;

·           Councillor Rowland was interested to know if Pupil Premium was used more for children with English as an additional language or children from other minority groups.  Alan explained there was a small number of Black Minority Ethnicity (BME) children in Wokingham;

·           Councillor Swaddled stated that school Governors should be able to challenge Headteachers regarding the use of Pupil Premium.  Alan confirmed that Governors knew that they had to challenge Headteachers and Ofsted reports reflected that;

·           Alan informed that his team was working with other Local Authorities to reflect on the best ways to narrow the gap in achievement for the most vulnerable.  Wokingham had a small number of pupils who accessed free school meals, and was sharing this challenge with similar Local Authorities which Ofsted had recognised as struggling to narrow gaps consistently;

·           Judith commented that it was easier for larger authorities in more deprived areas to demonstrated improvement in narrowing the gap then for smaller authorities in affluent areas such as Wokingham.

 

RESOLVED That:

1)     The actions identified in the report be supported;

 

2)     Further reports following subsequent national data releases will include the following:

 

a)    Figures throughout the report;

b)    School differentiation (academy, free school, maintained);

c)    Value added figure for KS1 and KS2;

d)    Additional information on Wokingham children attending neighbouring schools;

e)    GCSE results identifying boys and girls attainment;

f)     Information relating to children with English as an additional language and Black Minority Ethnicity.

Supporting documents: