Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People

Staffordshire showed a positive direction of travel in terms of the percentage of schools judged as Good or Outstanding (and the percentage of all pupils that attended these schools).  As at 1 September 2017 89% of Staffordshire schools were judged as good or outstanding, an increase of three percentage points since the same point in 2016 and the fourth highest year-on-year improvement of their statistical neighbour local authorities.  The 2017 target of 92% was not met, however Staffordshire improved at a faster rate than the national average during 2016/17.  The percentage of pupils attending schools graded good or outstanding had increased from 82% in August 2016 to 85% in August 2017. 

The new primary and secondary accountability measures introduced in 2016 and the further changes to Key Stage 4 in 2017 with the introduction of “9-1” reformed GCSEs in English and Maths continued to limit trend comparisons over time.  Levels of attainment and progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1 (KS1) remained strong and continued to outperform national levels of performance.  In 2017, attainment at the end of Key Stage Two (the primary phase) improved by more than the improvements seen nationally.  Staffordshire results were now above national in all key measures.

The focus in 2017/18 would continue at Key Stage Two (KS2), Key Stage Four (KS4) and Key Stage Five (KS5) where there remained variations in attainment and progress of schools.  Further improvements were required to gain ground in the rates of attainment and progress achieved by their statistical neighbours and nationally, particularly at KS4 and KS5.  Staffordshire schools also needed to continue to do more to tackle variations in attainment and progress between localities and for different pupil groups, such as those eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) or Disadvantaged pupils (DA). 

Education and Skills was a key priority that would be developed in the County Council Strategic Plan 2018/2022 and would set out how working with all their partners they would:

“Offer Staffordshire parents and their children high performing early years provision, schools and colleges to attend.  Encouraging and helping parents to become more involved in and ambitious for their child’s education, whilst influencing early years settings, schools, colleges and universities to support each other to improve, excel and contribute fully to their communities.”

In response to a question about his role in Education the Cabinet Member informed the Select Committee that if young people come out of school better educated and better able to play an active and positive part in society they will prosper and do better, and their children would be more likely to do the same.   This would also be likely to have a positive effect on their health outcomes and the number of children coming into the County Council’s system from a childcare, looked after and safeguarding perspective would be lower than it currently is.  Also the local authority has a statutory obligation around school improvement.

It was questioned what the County Council had to do with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72