4 November 2015 weekly update

Pupil Premium Outcomes at Key Stage 2

The funding for the Pupil Premium in Kent now exceeds £50 million and yet we have seen very little improvement in outcomes for pupils on free school meals at Key Stages 2 and 4.

In 2015 the attainment gap between the proportion of FSM pupils who achieved Level 4 and above in reading, writing and mathematics and their non FSM peers was 17.6%, only a 0.2% improvement compared to 2014. 

Level 4 attainment for Kent FSM pupils improved by 1.8% to 67.3% in 2015 but non FSM attainment also increased by 1.6% to 84.9%.

FSM pupils in Dartford attained better outcomes than other districts.  73.1% of pupils achieved Level 4 and above combined, an improvement of 4.7% compared to 2014 outcomes. Maidstone had the greatest improvement in FSM combined Level 4 and above attainment at 10.9% taking outcomes to 65.9%. FSM pupils in Tunbridge Wells attained least well compared to other districts, only 59.1% achieved Level 4 and above combined, a drop of 3.8% on their 2014 outcomes, compared to a non FSM outcome of 86.1% in the district.

Attainment outcomes at Level 4 for reading, writing and math were better than combined attainment, particularly in reading where at least 75% of FSM pupils attained Level 4 and above across all districts.

Tunbridge Wells was the only district in 2015 where the attainment of FSM pupils fell below 75% in writing, with attainment of 73.6%.

Attainment of FSM pupils in mathematics was less good than reading and writing in 2015. FSM pupils in three districts (Gravesham 73.5%, Ashford 74.3% and Tunbridge Wells 70.0%) had Level 4 attainment below 75%.

The FSM attainment gap for Level 4 combined reduced in only six of the twelve districts in 2015 (Dartford, Gravesham, Sevenoaks, Swale, Dover and Maidstone).

Levels of Progress

Although the proportion of FSM pupils making two levels of progress in reading improved in seven districts in 2015 only Dartford had progress rates above 90%, at 92.4% for FSM pupils. The proportion of FSM pupils making three levels of progress in reading improved in 2015 in eight districts and only Ashford had FSM progress measures below 30% at 29.8%.

The proportion of FSM pupils making two levels of progress in writing improved in nine districts in 2015 and only Sevenoaks had progress rates below 90% at 88.3% for FSM pupils. The proportion of FSM pupils making three levels of progress improved in 2015 in eight districts and only Sevenoaks had FSM progress measures below 30% at 29.7%.

The proportion of FSM pupils making two levels of progress in mathematics improved in only four districts and no district had progress rates higher than 88.4% for FSM pupils. FSM pupils in Ashford made the least good progress at 79.7%. The proportion of FSM pupils making three levels of progress improved in only three districts and only Dartford had progress rates above 30% at 34.2%.  Ashford had the lowest proportion of FSM pupils making three levels of progress in mathematics at 16.8%.

The Pupil Premium figures for Key Stage 4 will be available later in the year. 

Coasting Schools and DfE Consultation

The DfE is consulting on Intervening in failing, underperforming and coasting schools. This is a major revision of the May 2014, revised January 2015, 'Schools Causing Concern' guidance. The draft new guidance is Schools Causing Concern: Intervening in failing, underperforming and coasting schools: Guidance for local authorities and RSCs. The draft not only updates the guidance to take account of the Education and Adoption Bill currently before Parliament but contains non-statutory guidance on related local authority functions including how local authorities should act as champions of education excellence and school governance. These documents also describe the illustrative regulations on 'coasting schools' prepared by the DfE to inform Parliamentary debate on the Education and Adoption Bill.

The draft guidance sets out local authorities' intervention powers in maintained schools and the powers of the Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs).

The consultation specifically seeks views on:

• the revised Schools Causing Concern guidance which sets out how RSCs will use the new powers in the Bill to turn around failing schools and to challenge coasting schools and other cases of underperformance.
• the proposed definition of 'coasting'

Coasting schools - definition

The DfE proposals are rooted in 'the progress that pupils make at a school', taking account of the starting point of pupils rather than simply their attainment, to recognise the variation in intakes and how well a school helps its pupils.

The DfE is concerned also that 'coasting' should relate to several years, not an isolated set of results. Taking the above into account, the proposed definition is:

A coasting school is where data shows that, over a three year period, the school is failing to ensure that pupils reach their potential. A school will only be coasting if performance data falls below the coasting bar in all three previous years.

Since the accountability arrangements for schools are changing in 2016, the DfE is consulting on the definition which will apply under the new arrangements for results from 2016 onwards and be used to judge schools after three years' worth of results – that is, after the 2016, 2017 and 2018 results.

Primary

A primary school will be coasting if in three consecutive years fewer than 85% of pupils achieve the new expected standard across reading, writing and mathematics and pupil progress is below the progress element of the definition.

Secondary

A secondary school will be coasting if in three consecutive years it falls below a new coasting level set against the progress 8 measure. This level will be set in 2016 and will be above the absolute floor standard of - 0.5.

From 2016, in Secondary schools each Year 11 student's progress will be compared with the performance of other Year 11 students in the country with the same Key Stage 2 starting point. Performance will be looked at across eight core subjects, including English and mathematics. The DfE will set a Progress 8 score and if schools do not reach this level there would be concern that they were not fulfilling the potential of their pupils. Where a secondary school falls below this bar for three years then they will be coasting.

The interim bar for 2014 and 2015 is: Fewer than 60% of pupils achieve 5 or more A*-C grades including English and maths at GCSE and the percentage of pupils making expected progress in English is below the national median and the percentage of pupils making expected progress in mathematics is below the national median.

The consultation documents describe significant changes to the present arrangements and I would encourage you to respond. The consultation closes on 18 December 2015.

Patrick Leeson
Corporate Director of Education and Young People's Services