3 November 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Director Education Quality and Standards

The current Director of Education Quality and Standards, Gillian Cawley, will be leaving KCC shortly to take up some exciting new projects and opportunities in education across the country.

I am sure you will join me in wishing her every success for the future. I would like to thank Gillian for her excellent contribution to the work of the Education and Young People’s Services Directorate since she joined us in 2015.

Graham Willett is the new interim Director Education Quality and Standards, managing Early Years, School Improvement and the Skills and Employability Services. He has already started to work with us and is currently working with Gillian to ensure a smooth handover before she leaves on 11 November.

I am grateful that Graham is taking on this role. He is the former Director of Education Services for Achieving for Children in the London Boroughs of Richmond and Kingston upon Thames and he comes with a strong background of delivering effective services to support schools and settings. Graham will be taking a leading role in developing our new Education Services Company.

For more information on this area of our work please contact Graham.Willett@kent.gov.uk.

Update on the Kent Association of Headteachers

As you know the Kent Association of Headteachers works in partnership with the Local Authority to develop a self-improving school system in the county. An important aspect of this process has been the promotion of collaboration and school-to-school support.

During the past year 506 Kent schools were involved in collaborative projects for school improvement. Of the collaborating schools, 329 benefited from successful bids for funding to the KAH Area Boards. These bids were focused on raising standards, narrowing achievement gaps, improving teaching, building leadership capacity and supporting schools to improve OFSTED inspection outcomes..

Over 40 schools considered vulnerable, almost all of which had been previously judged by OfSTED as ‘requiring improvement’, received targeted grants from the KAH as a result of bids made on their behalf by Senior Improvement Advisers.

A key priority in the past year has been the development of the KAH Leadership Strategy.

Trends evident in the successful bids in 2015/16 included a greater emphasis on raising achievement in Mathematics in Primary schools, and on improving pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing.

It is likely that the collaborative projects which focused on improvements at Key Stage 2 have contributed to the raising of achievement in Primary schools. In 2014 and 2015, Kent’s Key Stage 2 results were in line with the national average, having been below it in all previous years. Results for 2016 show that our Key Stage 2 outcomes have now exceeded the national average.

Impact on OFSTED judgements

While a number of the Requiring Improvement schools supported in the years 2014/15 and 2015/16 have yet to be re-inspected, there is evidence of the effectiveness of KAH collaboration funding in helping schools to improve Ofsted outcomes.

In September 2014, there were 251 good Primary schools and 58 outstanding schools, equivalent to 59% of the total. In September 2016 there are 303 good Primary schools and 72 outstanding schools, which is 91%. It is very clear that school collaboration and school to school support, aided by the KAH funding through the Area Boards, has had a significant impact on this improvement journey.

As the proportion of good and better schools in Kent increases, the movement from good to outstanding is receiving greater emphasis, as this raises the number of schools with the capacity to support others.

The International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme

This is another important collaborative project supported by KAH. It includes 25 High schools across Kent. With the support of the KAH, this group of schools is developing an innovative post-16 curriculum, combining academic and vocational education and including a core of personal and social education, which develops international-mindedness. It prepares students for higher education, apprenticeships and employment.

The project, supported by KAH funding, has enabled the 25 schools to become candidate schools preparing to offer the programme. In 2015-16, the KAH Area Boards had identified the creation of new post-16 pathways as a priority. KAH funding has also provided finance for a training programme, provided by the International Baccalaureate Organisation.

Priorities Going Forward

As the Kent Association of Headteachers moves forward it aims to play a major role in the formation of an Education Services Company in Kent to deliver better services to schools, with better value for money for traded activity. It continues to work closely with the Kent and Medway Teaching Schools Alliance to ensure support from Teaching Schools is targeted where it is needed most and there is a systematic allocation of subject and national leaders of education. There are plans to develop a new teacher recruitment strategy for Kent.

The KAH also supports our own Kent Leaders of Education (KLE) programme, recruiting more great school leaders to this role as system leaders to support improvements in other schools and to provide newly appointed Headteachers with mentors, as well as contributing to their induction programme.

This work has made a significant contribution to the on-going development of a school led improving system in Kent and a greater recognition that deep collaboration between schools is the most effective way of spreading the best knowledge and expertise around the system.

I am grateful to the Kent Association of Headteachers for all the good work they have been doing and to their contribution to promoting school to school support as the basis for our school improvement strategy in Kent.

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