Issue - meetings

Educational Attainment in Southampton

Meeting: 26/09/2019 - Children and Families Scrutiny Panel (Item 15)

15 Educational Attainment in Southampton pdf icon PDF 309 KB

Report of the Director, Legal and Governance requesting that the Panel consider the provisional 2018/19 key stage exam results in Southampton and the educational attainment of Looked After Children.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel received the report of the Director, Legal and Governance which requested that the Panel considered the provisional 2018/19 key stage exam results in Southampton and the educational attainment of Looked After Children.

 

Councillor Paffey, Cabinet Member for Aspiration, Children and Lifelong Learning; Hilary Brooks, Service Director, Children and Families Services; Derek Wiles, Service Lead, Education and Early Help; and Maria Anderson, Head of Virtual School; were present and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the Panel.  In discussions with the officers the Panel noted the following:

  • For key stage 2 there had been a focus on the implementation of robust measures to address under performance for two schools in the City.
  • For key stage 4 there was good peer to peer support among schools and a lot of peer challenge that was driving improvement.  This included topic support groups that provided challenge and promoted better ways of teaching in schools.
  • There were only two quality assurance officers for the City when there used to be thirty.
  • Schools had made a decision to ensure that the curriculum offered met the needs of the students and therefore not every student followed a GCSE pathway at key stage 4.
  • Fewer children were school ready at entry to key stage 1 than four years ago.
  • The high percentage of students that speak English as a second language in the City made literacy attainment difficult to achieve.
  • Elective home education and off rolling of students was a concern.
  • Overall the exam results have improved.

 

RESOLVED

  (i)  That the Panel would be provided with ‘off-rolling’ figures for Southampton schools.

  (ii)  That, reflecting concerns about the number of children that are entering primary school without being ‘school ready’, the Panel would be provided with an overview of the actions that have been taken, or are planned to be taken, that would ensure the children who required additional support were targeted and supported to access good early years education.