6 July 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Key Stage 2 Results

The Key Stage 2 test results were released on Tuesday 5 July and 58% of pupils in Kent achieved the expected standard in the combined Reading, Writing and Maths assessments.

Nationally, 53% of pupils achieved the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths combined.

The Kent figure for pupils achieving the expected standard in teacher assessments for Reading, Writing and Maths combined is 74%. There is no national figure yet for this performance measure. We expect the progress data to be available in September.

The DfE has commented that pupils sitting the Key Stage 2 tests this year were the first to be taught and assessed under the new National Curriculum. They point out that the expected standard has been raised and the accountability framework for schools has also changed. These changes mean that the expected standard this year is higher and not comparable with the expected standard used in previous year’s statistics. It would therefore be incorrect and misleading, they say, to make direct comparisons showing changes over time. For example, it would be wrong to say that nationally ‘the percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Mathematics fell from 80% in 2015 to 53% in 2016’.

However, it is extraordinary that new assessment arrangements and performance measures have resulted in nearly half of Primary school pupils moving on to Secondary school not having achieved the expected standard at the end of their Primary education. This cannot be right, and cannot properly reflect the work that has taken place in many schools.

Overall in Kent 69% of pupils achieved the expected standard in Reading, compared to 66% nationally, while 80% of pupils In Kent achieved the expected standard in Writing, compared to 74% nationally. In Mathematics, 71% of pupils in Kent achieved the expected standard, compared to 70% nationally.

The results for individual schools in Kent vary enormously from 9% of pupils in one school achieving the expected standard to 100% in other schools.

Clearly we need to consider the results in the round, including the average scale scores and the progress data when they become available in September.

Congratulations to all the schools that have achieved positive results for their pupils.

Prevent Duty

It is a year since the DfE published advice and guidance for schools and childcare providers in relation to the Prevent duty under the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015.

Significant activity has taken place in Kent during the last school year to ensure schools and childcare providers are equipped with the skills and resources to carry out this duty. Tragic international terrorist incidents have continued to take place in the last few months and the threat and offensive nature of extremism and radicalisation have been widely reported. These acts clearly conflict with the value of mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. More recently we have seen an increase in racist attacks following the EU referendum.

The KELSI page ‘Prevent within schools’ is a valuable resource for education professionals and contains links to key policies and guidance. It has recently been updated to include links to the DfE Educate against Hate web site, the Home Office Prevent training catalogue and an example from Mid Kent College of their visiting speaker policy.

For advice and support about how Kent is supporting the Prevent agenda, please contact nick.wilkinson@kent.gov.uk.

Director of Early Help and Preventative Services

Florence Kroll, Director of Early Help and Preventative Services, will be leaving KCC in September to take up the role of Director of Children’s Services in Greenwich. Florence has done an excellent job in Kent in developing and improving our Early Help services and she leaves behind a strong service which is doing better and better in supporting schools, children and young people, and families. We wish her well in her new post.

I am pleased to inform you that Stuart Collins, the current Early Help Head of Service for North Kent, will be the interim Director of Early Help and Preventative Services upon Florence’s departure. There will also be a new interim Head of Service for the north area of the county which I will be able to confirm very shortly.

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