Agenda item

The Principal Education Officer submits the Underachievement of ‘Black Caribbean’ and ‘White British Working-Class’ pupils of secondary school age in Leicester’ report to provide some context and background to the current work across Education to improve outcomes for all disadvantaged children and particularly those groups identified by Scrutiny Commission.

The Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission are asked to:

1)    Note the content of the report,

2)    Note the actions taken and proposed.

The Principal Education Officer submitted the Underachievement of ‘Black Caribbean’ and ‘White British Working-Class’ pupils of secondary school age in Leicester’ report to provide some context and background to the current work across Education to improve outcomes for all disadvantaged children and particularly those groups identified by Scrutiny Commission.

The following was noted:

·         A working task group was set up to address the disparity of the groups highlighted to be underachieving.

·         There were previously more funding and direct support opportunities because the LA used to have an ethnic minority achievement service and was able to monitor racist incidents, work and support schools with children new to English. However, there was now a reduced funding amount from £34m some years ago to now £1.9m that the service received which must go directly to schools for their school improvement activity. Therefore, the LA approach was now to focus on working in partnership with schools and delivering the statutory elements.

·         Some of the key aims with schools in Leicester City are:

o   Working together and improve communication,

o   Ensure teachers from minority groups were represented at all levels,

o   Enable schools to develop their curriculum and their offer to children,

o   To ensure schools are providing aspects such as racial literacy training and having an understanding of the whole range of curriculum needs,

o   To enable schools to develop their curriculum which was right for their pupils/ students and provide support for dealing with bullying and racist incidents in a proactive way and preventing those coming forward.

o   The Local authority needed to work with schools via discussion, challenge, debate and demonstration,

o   Experts exist within Leicester city communities and schools and it was therefore necessary to enable those groups to work together to address the key findings of the recommendations of the Scrutiny Commission to improve those outcomes for all children and those specific groups underachieving - children of black Caribbean heritage (and other black heritage) and children of white heritage living in deprived area. It was noted that of these groups over 50% of children are eligible for pupil premium.

·         It was anticipated that with the task group the work will be able to move forward. The initial focus would be to look at attitudes and behaviours, environment and curriculum that schools are offering, with focuses on secondary education but also being aware of the challenges being faced in primary schools.

·         A three-year strategy would be developed, working with schools and partners, early years setting, universities, and parents etc to identify what needs to be done to improve all outcomes particularly for those underachieving.

·         The Covid-19 pandemic was noted to have broadened the disparity and also had an impact on many children’s mental health. Schools had faced several challenges.

Following queries from Members of the Commission, the following responses were provided:

·         To clarify certain aspects, it was agreed that the task group report would be circulated to Members of the Commission.

·         Officers clarified the reasons/ evidence as to why these specific groups had been identified as underachieving. However, it was further expressed that the work being carried out was for the benefit of all children who were suffering disadvantages in Leicester City schools.

·         The Principal Education Officer noted that data about groups of children underachieving was available, and the Commission would be regularly updated with this information.

·         It was noted that parental engagement was an important aspect and the service would continue to encourage schools to reach out to parents. Work was already underway in this area from early years, of which Member of the Commission encouraged that going back to the early years age group was very important.

·         Work to develop an education strategy for the City had commenced in January 2020 but had to be paused for several reasons, however, it was reported that this work would be resuming in Autumn 2021. It was emphasised that this work would need to be looked at from a range of perspectives including partners, businesses, children’s centres etc to ensure the needs of the City were being met and also to identify what was essential for education in Leicester City.

·         One Member reported bullying of specific communities at one of the secondary schools in Leicester (now an academy), it was therefore requested that Ward Members report any specific issues directly to the service officers. In this regard the importance of Members being school governors was also noted.

·         In terms of educational attainment, a Member of the Commission requested that the data be looked at to understand what had made the most impact/ difference over the past years. In response, the Officer noted that in 1997 Leicester City was at the bottom of the table, however in the past 25 years Leicester had shown improved outcomes for all children, but further improvements were still to be made.

·         The performance outcomes would now look at the longer trends/ picture as well as the past three years to ensure the delivery of a curriculum which was right for Leicester.

·         It was reiterated that the plan was to ensure systematic change of things being done periodically and to keep it at the top of the agenda until it was common in education. It would then be crucial to police the work done to ensure the achievements were being made and the environment was favourable for all children.

The Principal of Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School/ a member of the task group was present at the meeting and noted the following:

·         Many issues previously highlighted by Bernard Coard in 1970’s still exist in terms of African heritage young people in education.

·         There was now an impact of exclusions and Black Caribbean boys were five times more likely to be excluded from schools than any other group.

·         Institutional racism existed in our society, some of the structures that obstruct the achievement in schools still existed and it was therefore crucial to talk about how to make an impact and inevitably change those structures.

·         Schools had a commitment of care to give the available data to the DfE, however this request needed to be influential enough for them to release the figures.

·         Communities had concerns about the commitment of Leicester City education to address the disparities that exist in terms of educational achievement of African heritage communities and the white working class and other groups. Hence the reason for the necessity of the race equalities mark within schools, that can provide schools with a framework and structure that they can work towards.

·         The Principal of Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School noted the significance of having a curriculum that represented the community it served.

·         The task group was a way forward and it was time to address these issues with consistency that would allow transformation in our schools.

The Chair thanked the Principal Education Officer for all the hard work put into the report.

AGREED:

1.    The structures – to widen the diversity of school governors, as individuals and members of various faiths. With the support of the Local authority to support communities to step forward and be governors and diversify that group.

2.    That an update be provided from the task group to the Commission for the October meeting.

3.    That the task group report be circulated to Members of the Commission.