Agenda item

2.10

The Committee have requested to receive an update on Educational Attainment in Secondary Schools.  Accordingly, the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good and the Head of Learning and School Improvement, Kim James will attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current data available.

The Committee have requested to receive an update on Educational Attainment in Secondary Schools.  Accordingly, the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good and the Head of Learning and School Improvement, Kim James attended the meeting to give a verbal update on the current data available.

Hayley Good reported that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer exam series was cancelled in 2020. Students scheduled to sit GCSE and A/AS level exams in 2020 were awarded either a centre assessment grade (based on what the school or college believed the student would most likely have achieved had exams gone ahead) or their calculated grade using a model developed by Ofqual - whichever was the higher of the two.

As a result, the 2019/20 data should not be directly compared to attainment data from previous years for the purposes of measuring changes in student performance.

Nationally the Attainment 8 score increased from 46.8 to 50.2 as a result of an increased number of pupils with higher grades following this years’ GCSE awarding process. In Oxfordshire the Attainment 8 score increased from 47.4 in 2019 to 50.2 in 2020, in line with the national average.  Oxfordshire ranks 60th out of 151 local authorities for this measure.

52.0% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths in 2020, an increase from 46% in 2019.  Oxfordshire remained above the national average of 49.9% for this measure, ranking 47^th out of 151 local authorities.

The DfE state that the national increase for this measure was a consequence of the way GCSE grades were awarded in 2020 and the higher proportion of entries graded at 5 and above.

63.9% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved grade 5 and above in English in 2020. This is an increase from 60% in 2019. This was in line with the national average of 63.6% and Oxfordshire ranked 63^rd out of 151 local authorities.  79.7% of Oxfordshire pupils achieve grade 4 and above in English, compared with 80.7% nationally.

58.4% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved grades 5 and above in maths in 2020. This was an increase from 52% in 2019.  Nationally 55.9% of pupils achieved grade 5 and above in maths. Oxfordshire was ranked 43rd out of 151 local authorities for this measure (2^nd quartile).  77.1% of Oxfordshire pupils achieved grade 4 and above in maths, compared with 75.3% nationally.

Pupils with No SEN, an EHCP or a first language of English were the characteristic groups where the average Attainment 8 score in Oxfordshire was above the corresponding national average.  Pupils with an EHCP in Oxfordshire had a higher Attainment 8 score (18.0) than that nationally (15.2). For this indicator, Oxfordshire ranked 40th out of 150 local authorities.

Attainment 8 scores for pupils with either SEN support; free school meals disadvantaged or a first language other than English were less positive and below national averages.

Oxfordshire ranked in the top quartile of local authorities for attainment at grade 5 and above in English and maths for pupils with No SEN (59.8%) and pupils with an EHCP (9.5%).  The proportion of pupils achieving grades 5 and above in both English and maths was lower than the national average for pupils with SEN support (16.4%); free school meals (24.0%); disadvantaged pupils (25.6%) and those with a first language other than English (42.3%).

Oxfordshire’s lowest performing group by ethnicity were white pupils, who performed well below the national average.  Within Oxfordshire, only Chinese pupils had a higher attainment 8 score than those nationally. This was a very small cohort of 16 pupils.

A level APS per entry increased substantially in 2019/20. The DfE indicated this was as a result of the process for awarding qualifications in 2020 rather than reflecting a change in underlying performance. The increase in Oxfordshire (+3.94pts) was less than that nationally (+5.74pts).  Oxfordshire ranked 81st out of 150 local authorities for this measure.

87.5% of students in Oxfordshire achieved at least 2 A levels, higher than the national average of 86.3%.  Oxfordshire ranked 53^rd out of 150 local authorities.

88.4% of girls achieved at least 2 A levels in Oxfordshire (86.9% nationally) compared with 86.5% of boys (85.5% nationally).

27.5% of pupils in Oxfordshire achieved A-levels at grades AAB and better, compared with 33.5% nationally.  In Oxfordshire a higher proportion of boys (28.2%) achieved higher grades than girls (26.9%). The reverse is true nationally.

18.1% of Oxfordshire pupils achieved at least 3 A*A grades at A-level. This was an increase from 10.0% in 2019.  Nationally the proportion of pupils achieving those top grades increased by 10.2%pts to 22.5%.  The gender distribution of those higher grades was different to that nationally. In Oxfordshire more boys achieved 3 A*A grades than girls.

Councillor Pressel queried whether officers believed they had achieved what was hoped in terms of closing the gap and whether there was any comparison of the proportion of students undertaking A Levels with elsewhere.  In response Mrs good reported that she did not believed that they were closing the gap looking at the data they had for disadvantaged pupils on free school meals and that that was going to get worse post Covid.  Nationally, the gap was not being closed an had been a long-standing issue.  We need to look creatively going forward with the Education Strategy to change the situation.

The Committee thanked Mrs Good for her presentation and suggested that the new Scrutiny Committee after might wish to look at the attainment for white boys.