Meeting documents

To consider this report.

The Committee considered this report from the Head of Education Partnerships, that provided a summary of Somerset outcomes through Ofsted inspections and performance data for Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Assessments, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs), GCSE and A Level results for 2018. The report included comparison to national data where available and vulnerable groups against each Key Stage.

The report was supplemented by a presentation and it was noted that in some cases it was the final validated data, so caution needed to be given to the accuracy of some results as some national comparative data was still unavailable for some indicators. To enable understanding and allow for comparison, information for statistical neighbours was provided in places. It was noted that by the end of the current academic year there would be just 3 secondary schools in Somerset that were maintained by the Council, all the others having become Academies.

Members noted that as of March 2019, overall, 82.6% of Primary schools were judged Good or better which was below both national and regional averages of 86.8% and 84.1% respectively. For Secondary schools 81.6% were judged Good or better which was above the national and regional averages of 78.5% and 75.1% respectively. All Special school and PRUs in Somerset had been as judged Good or better.

There was a brief discussion on the reported figure of 81.3% of pupils in Somerset attending a Primary or Secondary school judged Good or better and it was acknowledged that a degree of caution needed to be exercised as some schools currently judged ‘Good’ or better had not been inspected for many years (in some cases 10 years), and the judgements were made under a different, less robust inspection framework. The Council was aware of those schools that had not been inspected for some time and that may be subject to an adverse judgement if they were to be inspected and appropriate support had been brokered to enable them to address any areas of concern.

Members heard that the main overall indicator for children at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) was the percentage of children achieving a good level of development (GLD) for which they need to achieve Expected or Exceeding in all prime Learning Goals (including Literacy and Mathematics). In Somerset 71.8% of children achieved GLD in 2018. This is 8 percentage points higher than in 2017 and continues a 7-year improvement trend. This is in line with the national average of 71.5% and Somerset was currently ranked 4th out of 11 of our top statistical neighbours.

In response to a question it was stated that literacy, including Reading and Writing remained as weaker areas of performance. The strongest area assessed is Technology followed by health and self-care. It was confirmed that the seventeen Early Learning Goals assessed across Somerset were part of a national assessment framework and there was recognition from Ofsted that the pressure of assessing so many goals was considerable.

It was reported that girls continued to outperform boys in all Early Learning Goals and on most indicators, including the GLD indicator. The gap between the performance of girls and boys had widened for the first time in 6 years. It now stood at 13.5 percentage points. Somerset was now on a par with the national performance gap between boys and girls however nationally the gap continued to close. Members noted that the inequality gap, which measured the performance of those children in the bottom 20% of the cohort against their peers, had also risen for the first time in 5 years to 27.0%, however this remained less than the national gap at 31.8%. Children in early years with SEND make a good level of progress with the rate being above both regional and national averages.

It was noted that overall the good performance achieved by children in Somerset during Key Stages 1 and 2, which was above the national average, was lost later, particularly and notably at Key Stage 4, where performance remained below regional, national and statistical neighbour averages. In response to a question it was noted that there was a gap between schools’ performance which was being addressed, although given recent changes to many schools it was a complex situation. The Council was acting as a champion for educational excellence and it was noted that there were now 15 multi-academy trusts (MAT’s) across Somerset and the Council had no plans to intervene from a school improvement point of view or to make changes. 

There was a discussion of the report and presentation and Members asked questions which Officers answered, including the possible impact of the introduction of the Progress 8 programme; plans to narrow gaps between low and high performing schools; the scheduling of providing updates on progress; the 17 early learning goals were nationally mandated and could not be reduced locally; ‘free Schools’ and it was noted there was only 1 free school in Somerset; A level results/performance between different settings; an overview of school performance of children looked after in Somerset.

The report was accepted.