8 February 2017 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Pupil Premium Conference

Last week we held a well-attended Pupil Premium Conference where nearly 200 schools participated in workshops to share good practice and to listen to presentations from a range of speakers including the Education Endowment Foundation

While there is very positive year on year improvement in pupil outcomes in Kent, so that for example in 2016 standards in the Early Years Foundation Stage and all Key Stages were above the national averages, our biggest challenge is to achieve more progress in narrowing achievement gaps, especially for those supported by the Pupil Premium.

These gaps are proving hard to close. Gaps in Kent are wider than the national gaps at every stage of education and, following the national trend, they become greater as children get older. This means that too few pupils are helped successfully to catch up, and even where Free School Meals (FSM) pupils achieve the expected standard at an early Key Stage too many fall behind and do not achieve the expected standard at the next Key Stage.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage the achievement gap for children on Free School Meals increased slightly in 2016. At Key Stages 1, 2 and 4, gaps for pupils in receipt of Free School Meals remain very wide, which is a concern. The data pack (PPTM, 140.5 KB) that was used at the conference illustrates the trend over the last three years.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, the percentage of FSM pupils achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD) decreased very slightly from 60.1% in 2015 to 59.0% in 2016. The FSM achievement gap widened to 18.0% in 2016 from 15.0% in 2015.

At Key Stage 1 the achievement gaps are around 21%, having increased in 2016 compared to previous years. They are about 4% wider than the national gaps.

At Key Stage 2, in 2016, the proportion of FSM pupils who achieved the ‘expected standard’ in Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined was 37%, compared to 36% nationally. For other pupils 62% achieved the expected standard. The attainment gap in Kent is 25%, which is 4% wider than the national gap figure. In 2015 the gap in Kent was 21%.

At Key Stage 4, for pupils achieving grades A*-C in English and mathematics, the attainment gap between FSM pupils and their peers is 34%. This is 6.3% wider than the 2016 national gap of 27.8%. The gap at GCSE has been over 30% for several years and shows little sign of improving.

This means that nearly 70% of FSM pupils move on to post 16 learning or training without good qualifications in English and maths. They have to continue to study these subjects and gain the level 2 qualifications as part of their post 16 study programme. This is a very considerable challenge for the whole education system and impacts significantly on these young people’s job options for the future.

Children in Care

At Key Stage 2, in 2016, the proportion of Children in Care (CIC) who attained the ‘expected standard’ in Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined was 21.6%, a gap of 36.8%. At Key Stage 4, the latest data for Children in Care indicates a gap of 38%, compared to 2015 when the attainment gap at GCSE was 44%.

Expected Rates of Progress

A significant number of free school meals pupils do not make the expected progress that they should in relation to their prior attainment. For example, of the 1550 FSM pupils who attained a good level 2 at Key Stage 1 in 2012, only 720 (46.5%) went on to attain the expected standard at Key Stage 2 in 2016.

Similarly for the 2016 GCSE cohort, 1062 FSM pupils attained a good level 4 at Key Stage 2 in 2011, and 446 (42%) of these pupils achieved the expected standard in English and maths in 2016.

This highlights the need for very careful tracking of pupils’ progress and targeting of particular interventions to ensure those pupils who could reasonably be expected to achieve the expected standard at the next Key Stage do achieve it, given their prior attainment.

There is some marked variation across Districts. For example at Key Stage 2 (XLSX, 29.9 KB), 44% of FSM pupils attained the expected standard in Dover, and 41% in Thanet and Dartford, compared to 25% in Tonbridge and Malling and 32% in Ashford and Gravesham.

At Key Stage 4 (XLSX, 322.8 KB), 49% of fsm pupils achieved the expected standard in English and Maths in Dartford, 45% in Tonbridge Wells compared to 24% in Thanet and 27% in Shepway. These differences are not wholly explained by demography and levels of social disadvantage.

Diminishing the Difference

The Government’s new term for narrowing the achievement gap is Diminishing the Difference. We have produced two toolkits, for Primary and Secondary Schools, that bring together some of the most effective approaches to Diminishing the Difference. These were shared at the conference and are available to purchase. A summary of good practice (DOCX, 35.6 KB) is attached.

In order to make more progress we aim to support more schools to undertake Pupil Premium Reviews, recommended by the DFE for schools that need to make more effective use of the funding.

The Pupil Premium funding in Kent now exceeds £55 million in 2016-17, and we want to help to ensure that the most effective use is made of this additional resource. There is much good practice in Kent schools and we aim to do more to disseminate it.

Schools are expected to develop a Pupil Premium Strategy and to publish this on the school website. This is now a requirement and Ofsted inspectors will check to see that this is available. The School Improvement Team is able to share good examples of an effective Pupil Premium Strategy.

Conclusion

All schools have a part to play in narrowing these persistent achievement gaps for vulnerable learners.

There are many factors which make a difference, including consistently good quality teaching, an appropriate curriculum and the provision of additional support. The Education Endowment Foundation highlights the importance of frequent feedback to pupils and other kinds of formative assessment for learning, which has the highest impact on accelerating progress. Their toolkit also provides helpful guidance to schools on the most effective ways to use teaching assistants, and the most effective intervention programmes to use. Schools are increasingly recognising that a strong focus on increasing pupils’ resilience and motivation, as part of their work on promoting emotional wellbeing, can also make a difference to improving outcomes for these learners.

For more information please contact Tammy.Mitchell@kent.gov.uk, School Improvement Adviser for Closing the Gap (Primary) and Richard.Epps@kent.gov.uk, School Improvement Adviser for Closing the Gap (Secondary).

The pupil premium toolkit is scheduled to be uploaded onto EduKent and it will be available on Monday 13 February here - http://www.edukent.co.uk/our_services/online_resources_information/

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services