Agenda item

To review the attainment of pupils in Hackney academic year 2021/2022.

5.1 The Commission maintains regular oversight of pupil attainment in Hackney and this is therefore a standing item within our work programme.  Children’s attainment is presented at three stages for review, Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS),  Key Stage 2 (KS2) and Key Stage 4 (KS4).  The aim of this item is to:

·  Assess the attainment and progress of local children;

·  To identify any gaps on educational attainment among different groups; and

·  By extension, enquiring how HE and local schools are working to address local gaps in attainment.

5.2 The Commission reviewed a report provided by officers which provided a demographic analysis of attainment data to allow comparative assessment of pupil performance and the attainment gap between different groups of pupils.  Given the Commission’s ongoing interest in children who have been excluded, additional data on attainment of children in alternative provision is also included in the report. 

Hackney Education

5.3 EYFS - Summary

·  This was the first set of data since 2019 and the introduction of a new assessment framework for EYFS. 

·  It is therefore very difficult to compare results from 2022 with previous years.

·  The gap between FSM children reaching a GLD in Hackney and those who don’t is just 2% compared to 20% nationally.

·  Although the data shows very high levels of attainment at EYFS, some groups were underperforming, particularly Black Caribbean, Black African and Turkish/Cypriot/Kurdish children.

5.4 KS2 Summary

·  The overall level of performance was good at KS2, and 69% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, which is 10% above the national average.

·  Hackney was one of the highest performing boroughs ranking 8th against all other LA’s for the proportion of children reaching a GLD in reading (16th), writing (14th) and maths (9th).

·  Disadvantaged children (FSM, SEND) and ethnic groups all outperformed equivalent national cohorts.

5.5 KS4 - Summary

·  GCSE measures in Hackney (attainment 7, progress 8, standard pass and higher pass) exceeded national pass rates;

·  ¾ of children obtained a standard pass in English and Maths;

·  Local cohorts outperformed national cohorts in respect of FSM entitlement, SEND, gender and EAL.

·  Areas of focus going forward included:

·  Closing the in-school attainment gap - boys, disadvantage, ethnicity and ability.

·  Use of additional funding such as pupil premium or tutoring;

·  Curriculum was key for engagement and supporting improved performance;

5.6 Alternative Provision - Summary

·  Standard pass in this cohort was three times greater than the national cohort.

Questions from the Commission

5.7 Overcrowded housing, lack of study space and unequal access to other study resources all impact on levels of attainment, particularly in local Black Caribbean, Black African and Turkish/Cypriot/Kurdish communities.  How is the council addressing these broader systemic issues which are underpinning lower levels of attainment within these communities?

·  The authority was constantly interrogating performance data to ensure that all children achieve and to understand where to focus resources to support improvement.

·  Black Caribbean, Black African and Turkish/Cypriot children were underperforming compared to their peers in Hackney and poor housing, unemployment, poverty were all factors which contributed to poorer outcomes in some of these communities.  It was also apparent in the research that there were internal educational factors which impacted on educational attainment in these communities which included low pupil expectations, ethos of the school, school leadership, parental involvement and effective local partnerships.  Most importantly however, it was clear that accessibility and appropriateness of the school curriculum to these communities was critical to levels of engagement and subsequent achievement.  As local results indicated, there has been a lack of progress in the attainment of some cohorts of local children and that further more effective action is necessary.  In 2021, early years had focused on trauma, attachment and self-regulation to reflect the changes in the EYFS assessment.  Currently, the authority has shifted focus in early years to supporting an anti-racist approach within all settings to ensure that schools have leadership and an approach that supports this and that children have access to resources which reflect the demographic makeup of the borough.  It was acknowledged that this a long-term project where the results might not be visible for some time.

5.8  At every stage of attainment recorded in this report, children from Black Caribbean, Turkish and Black African record lower levels of attainment than their peers in Hackney.  This is not a one off, but part of an established trend in local attainment data going back many years.  Looking at the same attainment report which was presented to this Commission in 2017 (for 2016 data), it was also clear that for some groups within this cohort - educational performance levels have stagnated with attainment either falling or staying the same.  What is the overarching borough strategy to close the local attainment gap and how does this intersect with council wide programmes such as the Anti-Racist Strategy and the Young Black Men’s Project?

·  The Director of Education responded by acknowledging that there was an attainment gap between different groups of children in Hackney, but that in comparison to national figures, the local attainment gap was not as large.  The authority was not complacent and recognised that there was more to do.  A summit was planned for later this year to bring together local education leaders and partners to discuss the Hackney 2030 strategy and one of the issues that will be addressed in this process is how to close the attainment gap.  The authority wants to achieve excellence for all its pupils and will support schools to do so.

5.9  Parental engagement and involvement is important to children's attainment, but for those whose first language is not English this can be challenging. It was noted that many local Turkish /Kurdish/Cypriot parents do not speak English as a first language.  What is Hackney Education and local schools doing to remove language barriers and to promote parental engagement in their children’s education? 

·  The development of strong relationships with parents and the wider community is important for school attainment as this helps schools to understand the social and cultural context of pupils and the nature of disadvantage in specific communities (e.g. cultural capital, vocabulary, fear and anxiety).  Ensuring that schools and local educational leaders have a developed understanding of the lived experience of children within its diverse communities was central to this approach.  It is also important that this approach is reflected in aspects of the school environment.  The nature of the ‘additionality’ was also critical in bringing change (e.g. the interpreter, catch up lessons, the cultural engagement, the curriculum).

5.10 What can Hackney learn from other local authorities which have managed to reduce their attainment gap?

·  There have been a number of programmes to help address the attainment gap among Black Caribbean, Black African and Turkish/Cypriot communities.  In early years, children from these communities are recruited into a reading support programme which provides daily 1-1 support.  Parental workshops had also been developed in schools to support engagement. There was also a maths programme in year 5 and a reading group for years 4 and 5.

·  Given the complexity of this issue and the number of factors which impact on school performance, system leadership is critical. The School Improvement Partnership had broadened its brief and approach with schools to look at these wider issues.  There were entrepreneurial leaders in local schools, and it was important that Hackney Education ensured that other school leaders could learn from their approaches.

5.11 The data in the report provides an overall picture for Hackney and there is most likely there are wider variations in the performance of different cohorts of young people among the performance of local schools.  Are there any schools locally where the disparities in educational performance by different ethnic groups is not so pronounced?  If so, how are the approaches of these schools different and what can be learned across the local school system?

·  There are many local network meetings which Hackney Education supports to help share excellent practice across local schools.  Hackney Education was very keen to develop a sector led improvement approach.

·  In relation to variations in school performance, the authority was moving toward a more school supporting approach and a number of primary and secondary schools were receiving help from fellow school leaders within this process. 

5.12 How can the authority ensure that significant advances and improvement achieved with children in the early years stage is not lost as children progress through their schooling?

·  Early years education is qualitatively different in a number of areas such as parental engagement and support and there is a real partnership of services supporting children and families at this early stage of development.  It was important that parents took up their free childcare offer across early years settings as this was instrumental in improving outcomes.  Currently 30% of parents do not take up 2 year old free childcare entitlement so further work is necessary.  The evidence suggests that accessing 2 year old free childcare entitlement does have a positive impact on development and attainment outcomes.  The take up of 3 and 4 year old entitlement is relatively high at around 90%.  There was no data on the ethnicity of those not taking up childcare offers. Postcode data was available however, which would allow those not taking up the offer to be mapped.

5.13 As the attainment gap appears to get wider as children progress through their schooling, how is Hackney Education working with local academies given that most local children attend these schools for secondary education?

·  The Local Authority works very effectively with local academies and representatives attend head teacher and other local network events.  There were 81 schools in the local education system which all contribute differently to children's education. Academies do engage and their results do compare favourably. 

·  It was also noted that the secondary heads group is chaired by an academy head and a local academy is working with a local Orthodox Jewish School to share good practice and learning. 

5.14 The Chair noted that there were numerous parent engagement apps which have a very positive impact, particularly as the functions and text are available in multiple community languages.  How is learning from these different technologies being distributed among local schools?

·  The Parental Engagement Systems leader supported a number of forums where such practice can be shared and learned across local schools.  Leadership was important in parental engagement as this set the tone and context in which parents might engage.  Student forums were also useful in providing feedback to the school on how well such systems were working.

·  A member of the Commission also noted the importance of decentralised approach to parental engagement as this helped to engage specific groups of parents.

5.15 Noting the number of pupil movements, how does mobility impact on children's performance at school?

·  In a system which prioritises parental choice and with more vacancies emerging within the education sector, there is more pupil mobility between schools.  In this context, the school does need to ensure that pupils settle and adjust quickly so that they are ready to learn.  There was more to be learnt around  what worked best in this area and would be raised at appropriate forums.

5.16 The Chair thanked officers for attending the meeting and responding to questions from members of the Commission.  The Chair welcomed the updates on the work of schools to target underperforming pupils and hoped that the report next year would demonstrate the impact of this work.