As you will know all schools are required to set targets this autumn in English, Mathematics and Science for the current Year 8 students who will take their SATs in 2003. Schools are responsible for setting and publishing their own targets for raising pupils’ attainment in discussion with the LEA (as set out in paragraph 18 of the Code of Practice LEA – School Relations 2001). The target setting regulations require schools to set targets by the end of December 2001 for the Summer 2003. The Code makes clear that in the interests of continuous improvement, targets should be ambitious, rather than safe predictions of pupil performance.

The LEA is committed to supporting schools, through your RDA, and through the provision of additional relevant data. This year the LEA will be providing you with indicative minimum targets for this Key Stage 3 cohort of pupils. These indicative targets will be for each of the core subjects based upon rates of progress nationally from Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. The LEA is in a position to provide you with this information, for the first time this year, because pupil level data has been collected since 1998 and can now be matched to current cohorts.

The LEA will use the pupil level data for your school cohort to calculate indicative minimum targets for your school. These figures will be available shortly after the publication of the Autumn Package, when calculations can be made in relation to national rates of progress. By the start of the second half of the Autumn Term, each school will receive a redesigned target setting proforma including the indicative minimum target data for the school.

To support the target setting process you should be compiling the data available within your school during the first part of the Autumn Term. This will enable you to be in a position to undertake the setting of provisional targets for your school. When the provisional targets have been set these need to be submitted to your RDA on the LEA target setting proforma by the end of November.

I hope you will agree to the importance of getting this first part of the target setting process complete by the end of November. We have been looking at best practice in other LEAs and an early submission of targets is one of the key factors in getting school and LEA targets to match. If all schools adhere to the 30^th November deadline for submission of provisional targets the LEA will be in a position to analyse the aggregated schools’ targets to produce the composite LEA predicted target. This will enable us to match this with the LEA targets set by the DfES. If all deadlines are kept to this process will be completed by the 7^th December 2001.

As you know Norfolk signed a Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) with the government last year and one of the target areas is improved KS3 results. If the aggregated school results match or exceed the LPSA targets the LEA will receive substantial financial rewards to distribute to the schools. Our targets for 2003 are;

These represent quite a challenge but we are confident that with the existing good practice in KS3 and the impact of the national literacy and numeracy strategies that the targets are achievable.

In the period to 30^th November and 7^th December 2001, your RDA will be able to assess your provisional targets in relation to the indicative target for your school and the match between the aggregated target and the DfES target. Soon after 7^th December, when this process is complete, your RDA will be in contact with you to discuss your school level target. The finally negotiated targets will then need to be agreed by your governors and submitted to your RDA by 31^st December 2001 so that we can submit them to the DfES as required.

These time-scales are set out in tabular form on the attached timetable. Your RDA will be available to discuss and advise on these procedures and, at the end of the process, we will be evaluating the effectiveness of this approach.

To further support the accuracy and effectiveness of the setting of indicative targets, the LEA will be providing all schools with QCA optional tests for Key Stage 3 (Years 7 and 8). The LEA will finance the provision of the QCA tests for schools for two years and collect the results to analyse and support the school with data analysis and the compilation of indicative targets for each school. The funding will come from an additional grant we have received through the Public Service Agreement.

Sue Cosson will be negotiating the acquisition of the optional tests with QCA and you will be informed early in the new school year of the arrangements for this. We will be providing this service for two-year pilot period at the end of which we will undertake an evaluation with schools to assess the value and impact of these tests.

Should you have any queries about this process please contact me, Terry Cook or your RDA.

Yours sincerely

Fred Corbett (Assistant Director of Education – Advisory Services)