Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ian Hudspeth attended for Councillor Michael Waine. Councillor Tim Hallchurch attended for Councillor Nicholas Turner. Councillor Sarah Hutchinson attended for Councillor Val Smith. Councillor Zoé Patrick attended for Councillor Janet Godden.

There were no declarations of interest

There were no requests to speak to the Committee or to present petitions.

As set out in the minutes of the meeting on 16 February 2011,

The Committee AGREED to undertake a Select Committee style review of Educational Attainment at KS1 across the whole of Oxfordshire. The meeting would take place in July. A number of initial questions were identified. These were:

• How does Oxfordshire, and in particular the City, compare with similar places elsewhere?
• If some are better; what are they doing that Oxfordshire could adopt?
• What is being done already to try to deal with this problem?
• English as an additional language (EAL) is often put forward as a major factor in low attainment - but is it?
• Did the change from 3 tier education to 2 tiers have any effect on attainment?
• How do the figures appear when added value/improvement is taken into consideration?

Officers and Head Teachers will attend to participate in the review discussion.

Papers supporting the discussion will be circulated separately prior to the meeting.

The Chairman opened the meeting by explaining the purpose of the morning and how the meeting would be conducted.

Creighton Muirhead (Joint Interim Head of Service for Raising Attainment in Schools) presented a paper setting out the main performance data and other issues around Key Stage (KS) 1 attainment (the main body of the report attached to the agenda).

During the presentation Mr Muirhead made the following points:

KS1 is a milestone and it is important not to ignore the influence of both Early Years Foundation Stage Performance (EYFSP) and KS2. By the age of seven, most children are expected to achieve level 2.  The Local Authority encourages schools to use 2B+ as a measure of success.  The most able children would be expected to reach Level 3.  Children who are judged as Level 2C are within the expected range, but just below average.  Less able children will be scoring at Level 1.

Historically, many of the children starting in City primaries begin from a very low baseline i.e. with low recorded scores in the EYFSP and it takes beyond Year 2 for them to ‘catch up’ with their peers. However, in 2010 EYFSP is much improved upon 2008 and it is in fact above the national average. The greatest improvement for this age group has been made in the Central area, i.e. the area containing the City. The performance of this cohort of children will be seen in the KS1 figures for 2012 and it is hoped that the improvement in EYFSP will be matched then.

Compared with KS2 tests evaluation at KS1 is much less formal. The tests last for less than three hours altogether.  The results are not reported separately, but are used to help the teachers assess children’s work. KS2 performance is assessed on set days through formal tests which are externally marked. It is possible for teachers at KS1 to err on the side of caution so that contextual value added (CVA) looks better at KS2.

Mr Muirhead suggested that there were three major questions:

• Why are there inconsistencies in how schools respond to challenges?
• What are the reasons for varying success levels between schools with similar profiles?
• How can performance levels of all schools be improved?

Next, Fiona Craig, Local Authority lead for the Developing Successful Schools (DSS) programme and formerly Head Teacher of Shellingford CE Primary School and School Improvement Adviser, Oxford City Schoolsgave a presentation on “Background to the DSS programme”.

The aim of the programme is to secure school improvement, raising standards of attainment and accelerating pupil progress by;

• Securing an ethos of collaborative learning
• Strengthening LA  and schools’  capacity for improvement
• Supporting schools in improving  teaching and learning & leadership and management

DSS is a two year programme involving 27 schools across Oxfordshire in two cohorts (2010 and 2011).

In cohort 1 (2010); out of 14 schools 13 showed improved rates of progress KS1 –KS2 while attainment at KS1 improved to above the Oxon and National  ...  view the full minutes text for item 140/11

The meeting closed at 12.45