Agenda item

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submits a report outlining the education outcomes and attainment in Leicester for 2022.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report outlining the education outcomes and attainment in Leicester for 2022.

The Principal Education Officer presented the report, it was noted that:

·         The report aimed to show the change in performance from pre- to post-pandemic at different Key Stages, including comparisons to other Local Authorities and nationally. The report also aimed to share data which would show the difference in performance by different demographics.

·         Drops in performance in Leicester were smaller in KS2 and KS4 than nationally but larger in KS1 and Foundation than nationally. Although Leicester was low nationally in terms of KS2 and KS4 performance, the improvement children showed between KS1 and KS4 was better than average showing that the schools were adding value.

·         FSM children were doing better in Leicester than national peers. Boys continued to do worse than girls, and an improvement in SEND performance was also seen.

·         National figures showed that there was room for improvement with the performance of Asian children in Leicester.

·         White heritage children continued to do less well compared to other ethnic groups.

In response to questions from Members and Union Representatives it was noted that:

·         It was thought that readiness for school being impacted by the pandemic was a big reason for lessened performance at lower years, however the importance of readiness for school was apparent even before the pandemic.

·         There was a readiness for school steering group with various partners, the aim was to connect work to have a stronger impacty.

·         Family Hubs would be a key part of bringing early years work out into the community.

·         The Child Wellbeing Survey showed that there was a significant group who struggled to make it to school, this was the same group who struggled with food access.

·         There was sufficiency of funded early education places across the city, however some of these places had become more inconvenient for families in terms of logistics. There were also issues with providers not having the finances to stay open and having staffing issues.

·         There was currently a consultation on Public Health Nurses, which would result in proposals on the position of these Nurses going forward. There had always been a recruitment problem in this area.

·         Performance data was not released by school this year due to the impacts of the pandemic, provisional results by school were available on the DfE website for KS4. However, Ofsted now judged by provision instead of by the data.

·         There had been an increase in performance in reading, writing, and maths by those with EHCPs, however attainment levels were still very low.

·         There were challenges in ensuring parents who were eligible signing up for FSM for their children. It was hoped that community support would be able to encourage those eligible to sign up. There was a form for those with no recourse to public funds to sign up for FSM.

AGREED:

1.    That the Commission requests that the data from next year be brought to the Commission to consider.

2.    That the Commission requests that Officers consider options for the expansion of the Free School Meals scheme.