To consider the above titled item.

Clive Haines, Deputy Director for Education, talked through the provisional data for all school phases. Each phase received a percentage rating, which considered the level of development and progress. A summary of the progress made:

·         In early years, 67% showed a good level of development, compared to 65% nationally.

·         For phonics in year 1, 74% were working at standard, compared to 75% nationally.

o   This was a significant decline from 2019, due to the Covid lockdown.

o   RBWM was currently rated 99^th on the local authority league table.

·         For disadvantaged pupils, progress on phonics for year 1, 52% were working at standard. This was compared to 62% nationally.

·         For KS1, reading was at 69% (67% nationally), writing was at 59% (58% nationally) and maths was at 68% (also 68% nationally).

·         For disadvantaged pupils in KS1, reading was at 44% (51% nationally), writing was at 31% (41% nationally) and maths was at 45% (52% nationally).

·         For KS2, 63% were meeting the expected standard, compared to 59% nationally.

o   RBWM was placed in the top quintile of local authorities for KS2 and was also joint second in the south east local authority league table.

·         For disadvantaged pupils in KS2, 38% were meeting the expected standard, compared to 43% nationally.

o   The disadvantage gap was at its highest level nationally since 2012.

·         For GCSE results, 78% of pupils received an English and Maths at grade 4 or above in 2022, this was an increase on previous years.

·         A Level results were broken down by each school.

The Chairman noted the significant dip in KS1 phonics, both in RBWM and at a national level. He asked if this was all due to the pandemic, or if there were other factors which also had an impact on development.

Clive Haines explained that the pandemic had made development of phonics difficult as it was one of the most difficult things to teach online. Research which had been done so far in schools had showed that children were starting to catch up on their phonics development. Clive Haines hoped to bring a report to the School Improvement Forum once he had received the finalised data.

The Chairman asked if this was the same issue for writing.

Clive Haines confirmed that it was, children needed to be in school to properly develop their writing skills.

Navroop Mehat, All Saints Junior School, said that reading had been encouraged at home during lockdown but phonics and writing suffered. However, she believed it would pick up again now that children were back in school.

Councillor Del Campo asked if the phonics test was to understand the baseline of children coming into the school.

Clive Haines clarified it was a standardised test that needed to be done and was not used for benchmarking purposes. The test could be used to identify which children needed additional support.

Navroop Mehat added that it was a ‘moment in time’ test, it was to ensure that children were getting the right phonic sounds.

Councillor Del Campo asked if RBWM had compared the data to other neighbouring local authorities which had a similar demographic makeup.

Clive Haines said that comparisons were made both nationally and with the south east region. Benchmarking was now done at reception.

Councillor Del Campo said that nationally there were very different authorities, she asked if comparisons could be made with similar authorities to RBWM.

Clive Haines said it would be useful to do a comparison on this, particularly when comparing the disadvantaged pupil data.

Councillor Del Campo commented on the GCSE results, 1 in 4 pupils were not achieving at least a grade 4 in the two core subjects, English and Maths. She asked if this was a concern.

Clive Haines said it was not a concern, grade 4 was the median and a number of pupils were well above this grade too.

Kelly Nash added that a number of schools had creative pathways for pupils who did not achieve the pass grade, schools were being innovative to ensure that things like vocational courses could be accessed.

Councillor Del Campo asked why Furze Platt Secondary School had not reported their results.

Clive Haines said it was the schools choice to report results as they were an academy.

Councillor Coppinger asked if the data on Holyport College was regarding day pupils or if it was all pupils.

Clive Haines did not have that information, but he would find out.

ACTION – Clive Haines to find out whether the data referred to day pupils or those that were boarding at Holyport College.

Councillor Baldwin noted that exam results in RBWM were better than the national average, he wondered if there was a specific reason why this was the case.

Clive Haines said that catching up was done at KS4, accessibility and monitoring could be a reason why.

The Chairman asked when the full finalised data would be ready.

He was told that this was expected in December.