Agenda item
TEACHER ASSESSMENTS AND PROVISIONAL EXAMINATION RESULTS
- Meeting of Performance Scrutiny Committee, Thursday, 28 September 2017 9.30 am (Item 5.)
- View the declarations of interest for item 5.
To consider a joint report by the Principal Education Manager and GwE’s Secondary and Primary Leads (copy attached) which details Denbighshire’s final teacher assessments and provisional external examination results at Key Stage 4 and post 16, including benchmarked information and performance against other local authorities for teacher assessments. The report also seeks members’ observations on the County’s performance and to identify potential areas for improvements.
9.45am – 10.15am
Minutes:
The Lead Member for Education introduced the report and appendices
(previously circulated) which provided information on the performance of
Denbighshire’s pupils in relation to the final teacher assessments for the
2016-17 academic year, plus the provisional examination results at Key Stage
(KS)4 and post 16 at the end of the summer term 2017.
During his introduction the Lead Member advised that the KS4 results
were subject to a different assessment process to previous years and therefore
could not be accurately compared to the county’s results in preceding years.
Education officers and Education Lead Members across Wales had been notified in
April 2017 to expect a dip in performance in the 2017 GCSE examination results
because of the new assessment process.
The Lead Member also advised that officers had requested that a number
of Denbighshire pupils’ papers be re-marked as they disputed the grades awarded
for them. The outcomes of this process to date had been successful and
would be reflected in the verified results when they were presented to Scrutiny
in early 2018.
The Head of Education detailed the primary
education sector’s teacher assessment results emphasising that:
·
the Education
Service aimed at the conclusion of the Foundation Phase to undertake robust
assessments of pupils’ abilities. Denbighshire pupils’ attainment at the
end of the Foundation Phase during 2017 had been 1.7% below target, and ranked
20th out of 22 in Wales – lower than the expected free school meal
(FSM) position, but one place above the expected
position in the North Wales region. However, through the use of data
available to Children’s Services officers had been able to understand the
challenges faced by individual pupils in the cohort. Work was also being
undertaken in conjunction with Children’s Services in relation to these pupils
based on Public Health Wales’s adverse child experiences work;
·
KS2
assessments continued to record an improvement year on year. Achievement
now stood at 88.9% with only 6 pupils who were not on the Additional Learning
Needs (ALN) register not achieving the Core Subject Indicator (CSI). In
addition 37 pupils who had English as an Additional Language (EAL) did not
attain the CSI;
·
officers
from the County’s Education Department met with Estyn at the end of each term
to discuss attainment and the Regulator had indicated that it did not have
concerns about the performance of Denbighshire’s primary pupils as the County
was aware of each individual pupil’s personal circumstances;
·
the
Education Department did have concerns about the overall performance at KS4,
despite all authorities in Wales being advised not to compare the current
year’s results with previous years’ performance;
·
the
performance of all authorities in Wales at KS4 had dipped in 2017 with the
introduction of the new syllabus and grading system;
·
Denbighshire’s
performance profile at KS4 was very interesting as it had the best and third
best performing school at KS4 in North Wales, but it also had the poorest
performing school;
·
neither
Welsh or English Literature examination papers this year counted towards the
Level 2+, it was only the language examinations and mathematics that were taken into account for
the Level 2+; and
·
within
its county boundaries Denbighshire had the highest number of the most deprived
council wards in North Wales, consequently officers were interrogating FSM data
to ensure that it accurately reflected the county’s performance and to
establish whether everyone who was entitled to FSMs were claiming
them.
The Catholic Church’s co-opted member on scrutiny congratulated the
Council on its approach of focussing educational and welfare provision on each
individual pupil’s specific needs. She felt that this was the correct
approach to take, particularly linking the pupil’s educational needs to his/her
welfare needs as identified by Children Services. In her view having the
same officer as the Head of both these important services facilitated this
approach and supported the work across both services.
GwE’s Managing Director emphasised that:
·
12
pupils represented 1% of the cohort in the performance data, therefore the
examination performance of a small number of pupils within the cohort could
have a significant impact on the county’s overall performance ranking, both
regionally and nationally;
·
it was
important to remember that KS4 performance this year was unchartered territory;
·
Denbighshire’s
contribution to the education agenda in the North Wales region was key.
Whilst improving performance in KS4 would be a challenge it was important to
remember that Denbighshire’s primary sector was performing well and the North
Wales region was the best performing region in Wales in the primary sector;
·
the gap
between pupil attainment at Level 2+ in the region was also closing in
comparison to other Welsh regions; and
·
in his
view, there would be a huge challenge during the forthcoming year with respect
to improving pupils’ performance in English and Maths, particularly in view of
the fact that of the 55 Heads of Mathematics Departments in North Wales at present,
31 of were newly appointed to their posts.
GwE’s Primary Lead advised that:
·
during
the Foundation Phase, which was up to 7 years of age, pupils were assessed on
their literacy, mathematical and personal and social development (PSD) skills;
·
Denbighshire
pupils’ performance at the end of the Foundation Phase had declined this year,
the first time this had happened since the introduction of the Foundation Phase
assessments. Nevertheless, the gap in performance between pupils
receiving FSMs and non-FSM pupils was smaller than across the rest of the North
Wales region; and
·
whilst
performance in literacy, mathematics and science at KS2 had improved in
Denbighshire, all other counties had also improved against this
indicator. However, at KS2 Denbighshire had performed above the expected
FSM ranking at both national and regional level. It was also pleasing to
report that there was a smaller gap between the performance of pupils at this
stage who were in receipt of free school meals and those who were not, and that
the performance gap between girls and boys was narrowing.
Responding
to members’ questions the Lead Member for Education, Education Service Officers
and GwE representatives:
·
advised
that whilst a ‘weighting’ mechanism did not exist to take into account the
effect on a school’s performance of having a disproportionate number of ALN or
EAL pupils, examination results and teacher assessment data formed only one
part of the information available on individual schools. It was important
that performance data was considered alongside other available information such
as Estyn inspection reports, school categorisation information etc., and not in
isolation;
·
provided
reassurances that the county’s Education Service had an individual profile of
every pupil in Denbighshire’s schools, including ALN pupils attending
mainstream schools and those pupils attending its special schools. The
Service understood what each pupil was capable of achieving, the support they
would require to achieve their full potential, including the needs of those who
had complex barriers to overcome in order to achieve their potential;
·
confirmed that
the county’s pupil profiles were consistent with Estyn inspection
assessments. GwE analysed this data closely and
consequently held the most detailed pupil profile data of all the School
Improvement consortia across Wales;
·
emphasised that
pupils who had Special Educational Needs (SEN) or ALNs were not as likely to
achieve multiple A* results. However, the Council had a duty to ensure
that they were provided with the best educational experience possible, and one
which met their individual needs;
·
confirmed that
the FSM measure was a WG measure, used by them when reporting on educational
performance. Children in receipt of FSMs were not identifiable to their
peers in school, the were only identified on school administration systems and
County pupil data for the purposes of statistical reporting and to ensure that
all pupils, whatever their background/circumstances were afforded the same
educational opportunities;
·
advised
that the Council had undertaken some work with Headteachers
recently with a view to understanding what services they required for ALN
pupils in their schools;
·
confirmed that
the KS4 Level 2+ performance results had been adversely impacted this year
following the withdrawal of the English/Welsh Literature qualification from the
indicator. In addition the assessment method had changed, with 80% of the
performance measure now being based on examination results. The mathematical
and numeracy element of the KS4 qualification had changed to include
mathematical reasoning in daily life;
·
informed
the Committee that the -9.3% dip in performance in Denbighshire at KS4 (Level
2+), the largest % dip in the region, was due to a number of factors i.e. the
secondment of a high performing school’s headteacher,
slippages in performance in other schools compared to previous years,
performance of pupils in receipt of FSMs etc. The county also had the
first and third placed best performing schools in the region as well as the
weakest performing school in the region, the extent of this variance in
performance impacted on the County’s overall performance position;
·
explained
the new Welsh Government (WG) Cap 9 measurement, which focussed on each pupil’s
strongest nine subjects and aggregated their performance score across the
selected subjects;
·
confirmed
that GwE were currently examining the curriculum
offer available at Denbighshire’s schools to ensure that it was fit for
purpose;
·
confirmed that GwE had an improvement plan in place for each school in
Denbighshire and that they worked closely with the Council’s Education Service
to deliver each plan. Where required specialist officers would be going
into schools that were underperforming in a bid to improve outcomes for the
pupils;
·
verified
that each subject department in every secondary school had been assessed in
order to identify their improvement needs;
·
advised
that GwE and education officers were currently
analysing the data to establish whether the new approach towards assessing
pupils at KS4 had contributed towards the decline in performance across the
region;
·
confirmed that
whilst the secondment of high performing staff to organisations such as GwE could potentially have a detrimental effect on a
school’s performance, specialist school improvement services had to secure the
services of the best people in order to deliver sustainable school improvement
across the region. It was therefore important that the correct balance of
suitably qualified high calibre staff were maintained at all levels within the
education system in order to achieve maximum benefits for all; and
·
advised that the
3 year KS4 average floor target for pupils in receipt of FSMs of 36%, which
Denbighshire had only achieved 16.2% and which only one North Wales authority
had achieved, was an incremental target set by the WG.
The
Head of Education advised members that with regards to the disappointing
performance of individual schools that:
·
deep concerns had
been expressed to the governing body of a school which had permitted the
secondment of its Headteacher, although the decline
in performance was not attributed to the Headteacher’s
departure but to one department’s under performance. The Governing Body
had been informed that if it was permitting the Headteacher
to be seconded it should therefore have robust monitoring arrangements in place
for the school’s middle managers to ensure that pupils’ performance did not
suffer;
·
senior
officials, chair of governors and diocesan representatives of another
underperforming school had been invited to meet with her to discuss leadership
and management issues, FSM performance, authorised and unauthorised absence
rates, and their plans for improvement; and
·
having
regard to the future closure of both the primary and secondary Catholic schools
in Rhyl and the opening of the new 3 – 19 faith school in the town, a primary Headteacher had been appointed to work alongside the
present secondary school management team. Thus enabling the monitoring of its
improvement and ability to provide support and challenge, with a view to
achieving sustainable improvement in readiness for the opening of the new
school. Already school absenteeism rates at that school were reducing.
The Lead Member for Education assured the Committee that he had every
confidence that the County’s Education Service staff and GwE
knew the county’s schools and their pupils inside out, and that they were
making every effort to ensure that each pupil achieved their full
potential. He also advised the Committee that the Schools Standards
Monitoring Group (SSMG), which would include representatives from the scrutiny
committees, would in future be chaired by the Lead Member for Education. SSMG would
also be considering GwE’s quarterly review reports on
a regular basis.
The Lead Member for Education emphasised that whilst the Council and
Education Service were generally supportive of the principle of allowing staff
to gain additional experience through secondment opportunities, he was of the
view that in future it would be beneficial if the details of proposed
secondments were shared with the Council for it to submit its observations on
their impact to the governing bodies prior to them taking decisions on
secondment requests.
Prior to concluding the discussion members’ emphasised the need to
focus on under performing schools and to support them to a level where they
could sustain continual improvement. On this basis the practicalities of
inviting Headteachers and Chairs of Governing Bodies
of schools who were underperforming and/or encountering severe problems to
attend scrutiny to discuss with Committee members their plans for improvements
were discussed. Members and the Chief Executive were supportive of this
approach.
The Committee:
Resolved: subject to the above observations to -
(i)
receive the information on the performance of the county’s schools
against previous performance and the external benchmarks that were presently
available;
(ii) confirm that it had read, understood and
taken account of the Well-being Impact Assessment in Appendix 6 as part of its
consideration of the information; and
(iii) invite Headteachers and
Chairs of Governing Bodies of schools that were underperforming and/or encountering
severe problems to meet with the Committee in future with a view to supporting
sustainable long-term improvements.
Supporting documents:
- Exam Results Report 280117, item 5. PDF 241 KB
- Exams Report 280917 Appendix1, item 5. PDF 20 KB
- Exam Results Report - App 1a 280117, item 5. PDF 126 KB
- Exams Report 280917 Appendix2, item 5. PDF 23 KB
- Exams Report 280917 Appendix3, item 5. PDF 16 KB
- Exams Report 280917 Appendix4, item 5. PDF 41 KB
- Exams Report 280917 Appendix5, item 5. PDF 43 KB
- Exams Report 280917 Appendix6, item 5. PDF 81 KB