Agenda item

Report by Director of Education and Skills.

The report outlines the County Council’s approach to attainment in West Sussex, and the plans and actions being taken to contribute to improving attainment levels for children.

41.1     The Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills, Cllr Nigel Jupp, introduced the item stating that he felt the report provided an honest and clear review of where we were to date and the plans for the future.  Cllr Jupp said the report showed that secondary school outcomes in West Sussex were higher than the national average and that vulnerable children were doing well against national figures comparatively.  The work on a new Education and Skills Strategy would give an opportunity to pull the sector together and achieve the ambitions we would wish to see.

41.2     The Executive Director Children, Young People and Learning, Mrs Butler, highlighted that the County Council had experienced challenges around the attainment of disadvantaged children caused by the pandemic but that this was in line with other authorities in the south east region.

41.3     The Director of Education and Skills, Mr Wagstaff, said the report gave an overview to the period up to 2019 for which quantifiable data was available.  There had been no quantifiable data available during the pandemic. 

41.4     The Committee heard from Mr Shaun Allison, Director of the Durrington Research School.  He explained that the research school had been running for five years and was funded by Education Endowment Foundation, a charity committed to improving outcomes for disadvantaged children.  The aim of the organisation was to help busy school leaders and teachers to use evidence to help their school improvement work including looking at pupil premium provision, online training programmes led by them and wraparound support in various forms.  The Research School were currently working with 46 schools with plans to increase that number, maintain progress, work with school governors and with the advisory team.  The hope was to build best practice in these 46 schools, who could then share this learning with their peers in further schools across the County.

41.5     Members of the Committee asked Mr Allison questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows:

·       The definition of disadvantaged pupils could cover a wide range of factors and could be temporary or longer term.  Levels varied from school to school and community to community.  Schools receive funding for identified students known as Pupil Premium. 

·       How do schools deal with challenges like dyslexia?  Mr Allison reported that school leaders were thinking much more deeply about individual pupils and advocating a model for each rather than a blanket approach.  It was important to understand the challenges faced with a strong diagnostic assessment so that the best support could be given.

·       How might cultural capital have a role in disadvantaged status?  Cultural capital is the knowledge about the world that a pupil brings to school having learnt through home and life experience.  Disadvantaged children are less likely to have that learning and teachers need to work out how to build that knowledge.  Work is ongoing with parents to help them understand the importance of activities like homework and reading with their children.

41.6     Members of the Committee then asked the Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills and the Director of Education and Skills questions, following their discussions with schools and parents, and a summary of those questions and answers follows:

·       School readiness – Concerns were raised that some children were entering school not fully prepared and how could better support be given?  Mr Wagstaff reported that a tool kit to assess readiness was used, based on Department for Education guidelines, covering social skills, emotional separation, independence, and willingness to learn.  The Director advised that it was not felt the lack of readiness was due to Children and Family Centres being unavailable, however some Members’ schools felt otherwise.  The Director added that school readiness had been a concern for some time, but that pandemic restrictions might have had an impact on sociability.  The Schools Forum had agreed extra funding for additional staff to work in early years to help.  The Government had prioritised reception and year 6 children during the pandemic to help with readiness and transition.  All under 5s had been able to access enrichment activities alongside disadvantaged children.

·       Where school attendance had dropped, had mental health be sighted as increasing reason?  It was acknowledged that mental health and wellbeing was a big issue for staff and pupils.  Schools were supporting young people on issues of anxiety and bereavement.  The County Council had provided training on health and wellbeing and for mental health first aiders.  Consideration needed to be given to what should happen next and what level of services should be offered.  Work was taking place on the impact of long covid on pupils and teachers and the County Council were working with schools to ensure support packages for children who were long term absent from school.

·       Government Catch Up funding was directed to schools for individual tutoring and as a results schools had seen a reduction in the availability of supply teachers.  Many seemed to be tutoring instead.

·       How would best practice be shared amongst schools?  The Education and Skills directorate undertake a range of activities to disseminate and share best practice including virtual learning including case studies, regular head teacher briefings, discussion groups on key themes and sharing through locality groups.

·       How could the Committee engage at the earliest possible time with the work on the new Education and Skills strategy?  It was agreed that committee members should review the existing School Effectiveness strategy so that they could highlight what they would like to see in the new one.

41.7     Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Consider School Readiness and Mental Health support to be key areas that impact on the attainment of children and that these are focused on in the development of the Education and Skills Strategy.

2.   Will review the data on this year’s academic performance once it is available and assess whether there are any areas where scrutiny can add value. 

3.   Requests to see the breakdown by area of the attainment gap at end of key stage 2 between disadvantaged pupils and their peers (2019) to understand how the gap varies across the county.

4.   Requests to be involved in the development of the Education and Skills Strategy from an early stage. 

5.   Highlights the importance of having robust measures in place to share best practice to ensure learning on attainment and achievement is shared across all schools in West Sussex.