Expansion of primary literacy and numeracy pilots

The DCSF have expanded their flagship literacy and numeracy initiatives:

Every Child a Reader - by 2010/11 this will cover to 30,000 children in 3,000 schools (and 150 local authorities) a year struggling with early reading getting extra support. A recent report from the Institute of Education found that the pilot had been a huge success, with children getting higher than average results for their age. Within Yorkshire & Humber Every Child A Reader is being expanded this year to: Bradford, Kingston Upon Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Wakefield & Kirklees.

Every Child Counts - being piloted in 21 local authorities from this month and then rolled out over the next two years, so that by 2010/11 30,000 children in 1,900 schools (105 local authorities) will be covered. Within Yorkshire & Humber Every Child Counts will be initially piloted in: Leeds & Bradford.

Every Child a Writer - being piloted in nine local authority areas, a total of 135 schools and 2,500 children, from this month and will be rolled out nationally by 2011 so that it covers over 45,000 children in up to 9,000 schools and 150 local authorities. Despite the improvements in numeracy and literacy over the last decade, writing lags behind early reading improvement rates. No local authorities within Yorkshire & Humber are piloting this initiative.

Every Child Counts, like the established Every Child a Reader programme, focuses on the bottom 5% at Key Stage 1 and will mean that children struggling with early maths are given high quality intensive specialist support from trained teachers.

A Level results 2008

The key headlines from this years A Level results:

- 2.7% increase in the number of entries at A Level and a 1.2% increase at AS level.
- 7.5% increase in maths A Level entries and a 15.5% increase in further maths.
- Biology, physics and chemistry witnessed 2-3% increases in the number of entries.
- English is the most popular A Level (with 10.8 of all candidates taking English) this is followed by maths and then biology.
- A-C grades are up from 72.8% to 73.9%
- A grades see a small rise to 25.9%

Yorkshire and Humber has made one of the smallest improvements in the number of candidates gaining grade A at A level (2002-08) and only 22.3% of entries gain a grade A (second worst government office region).

For full report refer to the JCQ paper here.

GCSE results 2008

The key headlines from the GCSE results 2008 are:

- Overall pass rate at A*-C grades are up by 2.4pp to 65.7%
- English is up 0.7pp and maths 1.1pp
- Entries receiving either an A* or A grade has risen from 19.5% last year to 20.7%
- Entries to chemistry, physics and biology have increased by around 30%
- Boys pass rate is exceeding that of girls, hence the gender gap is closing: boys pass rate in English is up 0.9pp (girls 0.4pp) and in maths it is up 1.2pp (girls 1.0pp)
- For the first time boys pass rate went through the 60% mark and now stands at 62.1%

pp = percentage point(s)

Yorkshire & Humber remains the government region with the lowest percentage achieving a grade C (60.8%) or grade A (16.8%).



For full results see JCQ paper here

Provisional Key Stage 1, 2, 4 (GCSE) and post-16 attainment 2006/07

This Statistical Release by the DCSF provides information showing attainment for 2006/07 broken down by pupils' characteristics, namely gender, ethnicity, eligibility for free school meals , special educational needs (SEN) and English as an additional language (EAL). It includes data for Key Stage 1 and 2 National Curriculum assessments, GCSE and equivalent achievement and Post-16 achievement and is provisional.

Key points:
- Across all major assessments at key stage 1, 2, GCSE and post-16 there is a correlation between poverty and attainment and rural areas out-perform urban areas.
- Across assessment at key stage 1 & 2 it is travellers, gypsy, Romany children who score lowest, although these populations are also small in comparison to other ethnic groups.
- Chinese, pupils of Mixed White and Asian heritage and Indian pupils consistently achieve above the national average across Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.
- All the minority ethnic groups within the Black category and pupils of Mixed White and Black Caribbean heritage are consistently below the national average across Key Stages 1, 2 and 4.
- Bangladeshi and Pakistani pupils perform below the national average across all Key Stages.
- Those who receive free school meals consistently perform those who do not receive free school meals at key stage 1 & 2 attainment.
- Yorkshire and Humber has the lowest GCSE attainment of all nine government office regions and there is a s very large gap between the national attainment of Asian students and the attainment of Asian students in Yorkshire & Humber.

"On Track" evaluation - reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour

This is the final report from the second phase (March 2003-April 2006) of the national evaluation of On Track, a multi-component initiative which operated in 24 areas of high crime and high deprivation in England and Wales (including Bradford, Scarborough and Sheffield in Yorkshire & Humber region). The aim of the programme was to reduce the propensity of youth crime and anti-social behaviour for children aged 4-12 and their families. The evaluation included monitoring and tracking of 1,100 On Track services and 17,000 service users, longitudinal surveys of primary and secondary school staff and pupils in On Track areas, as well as a longitudinal cohort study which compared On Track area residents with similar families in non-On Track areas.

Key points:
- On Track was primarily a multi-agency, cross-sector programme with partners drawn from education, social services, youth offending services, health and local councils.
- Overall, home-school partnerships accounted for the greatest proportion of On Track services (33%), and by the second phase of the evaluation in some areas On Track was almost entirely school-based.
- Referrals to On Track projects came from a variety of routes, and overall education agencies were the largest single source of referrals comprising 35% of all referrals.
- Three quarters of all service users were children (53% girls), and almost a quarter were parents (mostly mothers – 88%).
- Across the programme as a whole, nearly seventeen thousand children and parents were recorded as users of On track in the second phase of the evaluation.
- Children in On Track areas and those using On Track services reported increasing warmth and praise from parents over time, and a decrease in hostility and criticism. Primary aged children were most likely to report these findings.
- In the primary school range, both children and their parents reported increased communication over time, and younger children were reported as reading more often with parents.
- Overall, there was no clear impact of On Track on school truancy and exclusions rates. However, there was some indication that for primary school children and for children and young people in a booster sample of high-need families that temporary exclusions had dropped over time. Results were also mixed for the impact of On Track on bad behaviour and bullying at school.
- Older children’s attachment and enjoyment of school showed significant positive changes over time including increased involvement and participation at school.

L2 & L3 Attainment

The data from the DCSF is tracking the Puplic Service Agreement to ensure consistent increases in the number of young people attaining level 2 (5 good GCSEs*) and level 3 (2 A-levels*) qualifications.
* Or equivalent.

Key points:
- 73.9% of 19yo's have level 2 qualifications.
- 48.0% of 19yo are qualified to level 3.
- Whilst closing the gap, the Yorkshire and Humber region continues to have the smallest proportion of 19yo's obtaining level 2 (69.9%, England average: 73.9%).
- For level 3 qualifications, the North East has the lowest proportion of 19yo's (41.6%, with Yorkshire and Humber on 42.8%, England average: 48.0%)

Lauch of National Challenge

In March I posted on the initial ideas behind the National Challenge: an attempt to ensure that no secondary school is below 30% of it's pupils achieving 5 good GCSEs (including English and Maths) by 2011. It takes the London Challenge national (across England).

Now the full details are out, which I summarise below, before offering links to online sources.

Key points:
- The aim is to ensure that all secondary schools have at least 30% of their pupils achieving at least 5 good GCSEs by 2011 (including English & maths). This figure is part of a wider move to have 90% of 19 year old's achieving this standard by 2020 as part of the Leitch skills agenda

- Each local authority will have to draft plans of how they will deal with schools who are within the national challenge or at risk of falling to below the 30% target. Plans to be presented to DSCF by end of July

- Yorkshire and Humber has the highest percentage of schools which fall into this category than any other region (27%). Click for a full list of schools in England. Below is a diagramme from the DCSF for Yorkshire and Humber.

- Whilst many of these schools have a high incidence of free school meals (a proxy for family poverty) and a low attainment at primary level English & Maths, many schools with similar characteristics do well and can be well above the 30% target

- The City of York is held as a beacon local authority due to the way it has approached similar issues in their schools (they also have no schools in the category)
- There is £400m given to this challenge. £20m will be spent on national challenge advisors, who will replace existing school improvement partners and can offer increased support (up to 20 days per year); £20m on National Leaders of Education and other Leadership support; £100m on teaching and learning and other support; £260 on building academy and trust schools where the school is falling substantially below the target
- Extra support for English and Maths tuition
- Sir Mike Tomlinson will chair an expert group to assist national challenge schools

BBC News website

Read DCSF News release

Complete list of number of schools per local authority

Click on image to see Schools Minister, Jim Knight, explain the policy

Budget 2008 & Yorkshire and Humber's children's services

The Budget 2008 announced several spending plans of interest to children's services in Yorkshire and Humberside.

- A strategy for providing "seamless enterprise education from primary schools to higher education" which will benefit 324 secondary schools in Yorkshire & Humber (see video below).
- Increases to child benefit and child tax credits which will benefit 620,000 families and 338,000 families respectively.
- Money to support the National Challenge (83 schools regionally) and money to support the 14 academies to be opened by 2011.

National Challenge

The Prime Minister & Schools Secretary have promised that all schools will be achieving at least 30% of students gaining 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE including English and Maths by 2012. To ensure this happens they will launch the "National Challenge" in May and all Local Authorities will be expected to have an action plan for each school by the summer.

Nationally there are 638 schools which would fail to meet this threshold, 81 of which (approximately) are in Yorkshire & Humber region and in all but one of the 15 Local Authorities (City of York being the exception).

Part of the solution the growth of academy schools, which is being accelerated to 55 a year.

In 2007 Yorkshire Futures released a report investigating why the Yorkshire and Humber region has consistently poor GCSE result. Read summary here.

Growth of specialist schools

At the end of Januaty 2008, the DCFS announced 89 new specialist schools. This takes the total of specialist schools up to 88% of the maintained secondary school sector. There are 26 Local Authority's which are 100% specialist: in the Yorkshire and Humber Region there is only one local authority which is 100% specialist - York.

Progress in the Region

Yorkshire Futures released their Annual Report on regional development. It shows that on many areas the gap between the region and the English average has widened in the last year and that even if indicators are improving this is not as fast as the English average.
Key points:
• There is a slow in progress for many indicators – this could be due to consolidation or a tail off
• Improvements in employment, education and some environmental indicators
• But problems with high level skills (level 4+); transport, obesity; innovation; housing; violent crime; climate change and equalities.

GCSE Results for Yorkshire & Humber

Yorkshire and Humber again comes lowest in the GCSE average scores for England. Y&H has an average of 56.9% of those finishing KS4 with at least 5 A*-C (only inner London received a lower average score). The average for England (all schools) was 61.5%.
These scores will become more important as the prime-minister hopes to close or replace schools with an average score of less than 30% 5 A*-C grades.
Looking nationally York is the best performing LA (12th with 67.4%) and North Yorkshire (23rd with 65.6%). At the other end NE Lincs. and Hull are 139th and 140th respectively (51.2%, 50.6%)

Yorkshire Forward commissioned research into why the region under performs at GCSE level:
• Only 7% of the variance in KS4 attainment can be accounted for by school level issues.
• Students own perception of the labour market chances impact on their own attainment.
• Attainment is strongly linked to the social segregation in schools (better social mix in schools assists greater attainment).
• Success at KS2 English is a key factor as it ensures effective communication skills needed for success at KS4.