Agenda item

This annual school performance report is intended to update the Committee on the provisional outcomes of the 2023-2024 academic year’s assessments and examinations across H&F primary and secondary schools. It includes an update on the current status of Ofsted inspections within the borough.

The report also provides a comparative analysis of H&F outcomes against national standards and outlines the key priorities for school improvement that guide the work of our education service

Georgina Herry (Head of School Effectiveness) introduced the report which was a positive picture for outcomes in H&F at every Key Stage (KS), including early years, year 1 phonics, KS2 attainment (expected and greater depth standards), KS2 SEND attainment, KS4 performance (Progress 8, Attainment 8, Grade 5 E&M and EBacc entry), SEND KS4 performance, and KS5 performance (average point score, average grade. She also briefed members on attendance, elective home education (EHE) and children missing in education, exclusions, and priorities for 2024/25.

NOTE: The presentation slides are attached in previous item</AI4>

Georgina Herry took the opportunity to note the work of H&F school leaders and staff in achieving the positive outcomes despite the challenging environment nationally.  Their hard work paid off in ensuring the children thrived in the local area. 

In reply to the questions of the Chair and Councillor Aliya Afzal-Khan, Peter Haylock (Operation Director for Education and SEND) noted that the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) entry was a suite of qualifications ensuring students were covering a broad and balanced curriculum (which was equivalent to 5 GCSEs in English, Maths, Science, Languages and Humanities). Peter stressed that the national data measured the entry not the performance with a view to ensuring students were moving away from a narrowed curriculum.

Responding to the questions of Nandini Ganesh (Parentsactive Representative), Georgina Herry confirmed that the data included those special schools’ pupils who had taken GCSE subjects. As regards H&F schools, Peter Haylock advised that the schools were located within the borough, but the students might be out-of-borough residents.  He also confirmed that falling school rolls was still a problem with significant decrease in the recent two years. 

In this connection, Councillor Alex Sanderson (Deputy Leader) noted this was a nation-wide and global trend due to decreasing birth rates.  There had been a 20% reduction in London’s under 5s in the last decade.  The local authority was commissioning more family homes but there were not enough children to fill the many school places.

Noting the number of known EHE children spiked at summer 2021 likely due to covid-19, Councillor Afzal-Khan queried why there was another spike in summer 2024 and sought reasons for the trend. She was also concerned about the monitoring of the children’s education under EHE.

Peter Haylock remarked that the local authority was not allowed to ask the parents why they had opted EHE. On monitoring, the same safeguarding process used throughout was applicable to EHE children which had been carried out with increased provision.

In terms of EHE, the Chair observed the same trend nationally. Councillor Sanderson noted it could be due to a variety of reasons and the local authority had paid close attention to this cohort’s safeguarding by meeting and working with the families to achieve the best outcomes.

Noting the absence of attainment data for KS3, Councillor Afzal-Khan considered the local authorities could not step in and help pupils during this 5-year period after the baseline testing at KS2 and before obtaining the GCSE attainment at KS4.

Georgina Herry noted that there was no externally published data at KS3 but individual schools had closely monitored pupils’ entry performance and assessed them at appropriate junctures with a view to providing additional support early. In addition to attainment, the local authority also looked at the progress over their time in secondary schools. Progress 8 at KS4 reflected how pupils were doing from the KS2 baseline and schools were keen to track and get the support they needed as early as possible.

Councillor Afzal-Khan noted from Appendix 1 (page 60) that Progress 8 and Attainment 8 for some schools were far below the national levels.  She asked if this was consistent and whether strategies were in place to help these schools, noting there was a school leadership cohort that could help and guide each other.  Peter Haylock echoed that H&F’s secondary head teacher network was very strong and the recent brought in ‘rise’ programme was a school improvement service that the local authority might identify and talk with schools in need.

As regards the Chair’s suggestion of adding an explainer to facilitate parents making informed choices, Peter Haylock said this was up to the academies in presenting their data and parents might be looking at wider set of things about the schools. Georgina Herry added that there were online tools assisting parents to compare the schools.

Questions from the floor

Marie Thomas (Resident) was proud of the education outcomes in H&F schools and keenly hoped to ensure the H&F teachers were retained. She questioned the schools’ readiness in delivering healthy living curriculum like oral health and toilet training to early years.

Georgina Herry assured that a lot of work around health promotion had been done by the public health team which worked with school nurses on oral health, asthma, diabetes and healthy eating. She added that while it was a national trend for children to start schooling without toilet training, there were toilet training sessions for parents and carers to help pupils’ readiness for school.

Peter Haylock expressed his appreciation to the hard work of Georgina Herry and her small team done for the primaries and secondaries covering a wide range of areas from school performance to personal hygiene. 

Councillor Sanderson echoed and thanked for the huge amount of work done to make sure H&F schools were all on a continuous improvement journey. She also took the opportunity to congratulate Parentsactive for receiving the Civic Honors Award. Members applauded again at the nomination cited by Councillor Sanderson. Nandini Ganesh thanked everyone and noted they would be celebrating their 25^th anniversary soon.

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the report.