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Unseen Children:

Access and Achievement in Education

Sean Harford HMI

Regional Director

Ofsted

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Aims

Explain about the Access & Achievement review

Set out the key issues

Review findings

Link with use of Pupil Premium

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Access & Achievement- history

First report in 1993 ‘Access and achievement in urban education’ – Stuart Sutherland

Theme returned to by David Bell in a lecture in 2003

Sir Michael Wilshaw revisited the idea this year, 20 years on

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Access & Achievement2013 – quality of

schools

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Access & Achievement 2013 – outcomes in the Early Years

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Access & Achievement 2013 – outcomes in Primary education

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Access & Achievement 2013 – outcomes in Secondary education

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Location of the 97 secondary schools in England serving above average proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals, with the highest performance at GCSE for these pupils

Sample based on the 97 schools with above average proportions of eligible free school meals pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 (national average = 14%) and where their eligible free school meals pupils attained above the national average for all pupils at GCSE (59%) in 2012.

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Location of the 111 secondary schools in England serving above average proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals, with the lowest performance at GCSE for these pupils

Sample based on the 111 schools with above average proportions of eligible free school meals pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 (national average = 14%) and where fewer than 20% of their eligible free school meals pupils attained the GCSE benchmark in 2012.

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FSM pupils in the East ofEngland

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Access & Achievement2013 – outcomes post 16

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Access & Achievement2013 – report findings and

recommendations

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Access & Achievement- summary main findings

Widening variety in regional performance – worst where poorest are spread thinly – West Berkshire (KS2, KS4 and at age 19)

Long tail of underperformance mainly affecting the poorest (and most often White British – two thirds) children – isolated and coastal towns

More optimism than in 1993 and 2003 The rising tide test: more boats are being lifted! Political will and focus, good organisation and professional

leadership can lead to improvement for the most deprived Disadvantage and poor achievement NOT necessarily tied to

urban deprivation/inner city blight – e.g. London, parts of Manchester

Poverty of expectation vs material poverty

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Recommendation 1:

Ofsted will be tougher in future with schools which are letting down their poor children. Schools previously judged outstanding, which are not doing well by their poorest children, will be re-inspected.

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Recommendation 2:

The development and roll-out of sub-regional challenges aimed particularly at raising the achievement of disadvantaged children.

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Recommendation 3:

A more strategic approach is taken to the appointment of National Leaders of Education and their matching with schools in need of support.

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Recommendation 4:

The government must do more to ensure that teachers on funded schemes are directed to underperforming schools in less fashionable or more remote or challenging places. The concept of a ‘National Service Teacher’ should be an urgent consideration for government.

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Recommendation 5:

The Government should review assessment in Reception and Key Stage 1, with a view to publishing progress measures from the start of school to the end of Key Stage 1.

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Recommendation 6:

The government should be more prepared to dismantle inadequate colleges that have grown too large to assure quality across their different activities. Smaller specialist units, including University Technology Colleges, should be created with stronger links to business, commerce and industry.

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Recommendation 7:

The recommendations in the Richard Review should be implemented in full. This will provide a sound basis on which to reform and grow this system.

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Recommendation 8:

All post-16 providers should report on the rate of progress and outcomes for all young people who had previously been eligible for free school meals.

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Characteristics of successful approaches

Ring fenced the funding so that they always spent it on the target group Never confused eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and

focused on supporting disadvantaged pupils to achieve the highest levels Thoroughly analysed which pupils were underachieving and why Drew on research evidence and their own and others’ experience to

allocate the funding to the activities that were most likely to have an impact on achievement

Understood the importance of ensuring that all day-to-day teaching meets the needs of each learner, rather than relying on interventions to compensate for teaching that is less than good

Used achievement data frequently (not retrospectively) to check whether interventions or techniques were working and made adjustments accordingly

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Characteristics of successful approaches

Made sure that support staff (particularly TAs) were highly trained and understood their role in helping pupils to achieve

Ensured that a designated senior leader had a clear overview of how the funding was being allocated and the difference it was making to the outcomes for pupils

Ensured that teachers knew which pupils were eligible for the Pupil Premium so that they could take responsibility for accelerating their progress

Included discussions about pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium in performance management meetings

Thoroughly involved governors in the decision making and evaluation process

Were able, through careful monitoring and evaluation, to demonstrate the impact of each aspect of their spending on the outcomes for pupils.

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Characteristics of successful approaches

Had a lack of clarity about the intended impact of the spending Spent the funding indiscriminately on teaching assistants, with little

impact Did not monitor the quality and impact of interventions well enough Did not have a good performance management system for support

staff Did not have a clear audit trail for where the funding had been

spent Focused on pupils attaining the nationally expected level at the end

of the key stage, but did not to go beyond these expectations, so some more able eligible pupils underachieved

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And finally a quote…

“The greater the number of people who prove to be educable beyond all previous expectations . . . the stronger the suspicion grows that the rest may have been underestimated also, and that we are somehow failing a substantial number of young people.”

Ministry of Education (1963) Half our Future’

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Questions?