6 September 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Provisional Early Years and School Results 2016

Welcome back to the new school year I hope you and your staff had a relaxing summer break. As usual in this first week of term we provide a summary of the provisional school results for all key stages, and in the case of GCSE and post 16 results we are still awaiting returns from a small number of schools.

Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage results for Kent have improved again so that 74.8% of children achieved a good level of development compared with 73% in 2015. The national average is 69.3%. This continues a very good upward trend placing Kent above the national average.

Key Stage 1

Kent has also performed above the national average for every indicator at Key Stage 1. As these are new measures we are unable to make comparison with performance in 2015. However, the figures continue the positive improvement trend seen in recent years and provide a strong basis for improved pupil progress and outcomes in Key Stage 2.

In 2016

• In Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined, 66.6% of Kent pupils met or exceeded the expected standardcompared with 60.3% nationally.
• In Reading, 78.2% of pupils in Kent met or exceeded the expected standard, compared with 74% nationally.
• In Writing, 71.3% of Kent pupils met or exceeded the expected standard, compared with 65.5% nationally.
• In Mathematics, 77.5% of pupils in Kent met or exceeded the expected standard, compared with 72.6% nationally.

Key Stage 2

At Key Stage 2, Kent performed above the national average for all indicators, apart from Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling, which is in line with the national average. Compared with our statistical neighbours, Kent ‘s results overall, would be ranked 1^st (top) out of 11 other local authority areas.

• In 2016, 58.1% of Kent pupils met or exceeded the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined,compared with 53.0% nationally.
• In relation to gender: 55% of boys and 61% of girls reached the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined which compares favourably with the respective 2016 national averages of 50% and 57%.
• Figures for pupil premium learners and other vulnerable groups are not yet available.
• Both Kent and national outcomes are below the current attainment floor standard of 65%. Schools cannot be below the floor standard unless a combination of attainment and progress measures are below the set benchmarks.

Looking at individual subjects:

• In Reading, 69.2% of pupils in Kent met or exceeded the expected standard, compared to 66.0% nationally.
• In Writing, 80.0% of pupils met or exceeded the expected standard, compared to 74.0% nationally.
• In Mathematics, 71.3% of pupils met or exceeded the expected standard, compared to 70.0% nationally.
• 72.5% of pupils in Kent met or exceeded the expected standard in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling, compared to 72.0% nationally.

On the basis of 2016 outcomes, there are 142 Kent schools below the national average for combined Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

The results of new progress measures have not yet been published by the Department for Education (DfE). They are expected in December.

GCSE

At Key Stage 4 there is an overall positive picture. Provisional results show that Secondary schools across Kent have performed well against the old and new headline GCSE performance measures. Compared with 2015 there have been improvements in attainment.

However, all data is provisional and subject to further change as a complete set of results is not yet available from all schools. The Progress 8 measure, which is used for the floor standard, will be published later in the Autumn term along with national comparative data.

Performance in the old measure, the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more GCSE grades A*-C including English and mathematics, is 60.8%. This is above last year’s figure of 57.3% and the 2015 national average 56%. So far, 56 schools have reported improvement on their 2015 performance in this measure.

In the new headline Basics measure, the proportion of pupils achieving A*-C in English and mathematics, the figure is 63.1%. This is 3.3 percentage points above last year’s result of 59.8% and 7.3 percentage points above last year’s national figure. The national figure for 2016 Basics is not yet available. So far, 58 schools have reported improvement on their 2015 performance in this measure.

Improvements have been made in GCSE A*-C passes for English across the county where the success rate this year is 75.9%, compared to 70.4% last year. In mathematics, there is a small increase: this year to 67.6%, compared to 66.6% last year.

There has also been an increase in the headline English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) measure. This year it is 29.9 % rising from 26.5% last year. So far, 48 schools have reported improvement on their 2015 performance in this measure.

Post 16

At Post 16, following reforms in qualifications and curriculum provision, this is the first year in which there has been a reduction in the number of subjects offered at A level and AS Level.

The figures below compare 2016 data returned by schools with similar data from this point last year. This provisional data has not been validated and should be treated with caution as it will be subject to change when the final validated DfE performance tables are available in January 2017.

Provisional results for 2016 show that the percentage of students achieving two A level grades A* to E is 86.5%, which is slightly below the 88.3% achieved in 2015.

In relation to facilitating subjects, the percentage of students achieving AAB or above at A level is positive. The figure has improved to 17.8% in 2016, from 12.9% in 2015, which is very encouraging.

So far, 19 schools have had 100% of students gain two or more A levels this year. On this same measure, 35 schools have met or exceeded the 2015 national average of 91.5% for state funded schools and 92.2% for the national average for all schools. Similarly, 38 schools have met or exceeded last year’s Kent average of 88.3%.

Based on returns so far, the four year trend of rising vocational Average Point per Entry (APE) continues with an increase to 238 points from 213 in 2013. 39 schools show an increase in APE from last year across all vocational subjects. The percentage of students gaining 2 plus substantial vocational qualifications is slightly higher than last year at 6.9%. This upward trend clearly shows improving high quality vocational opportunities enabling Kent learners to secure positive destinations.

Post-16 A level performance remains a concern, however, with a continuing decline in results which reflects a similar picture nationally. From this year minimum standards will change from being attainment based to progress based. Schools will be below the minimum standard if they fail to meet progress measures set by the Department of Education. The DfE have not yet confirmed the date on which 2016 progress data will be available.

As usual we must qualify these results as provisional and a more detailed report on the results will be available when the data is more complete.

Well done and many congratulations to all the schools that have achieved improvements in outcomes for pupils in 2016.

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