2.1 It has been the position for some time that attainment in Norfolk has tended to be slightly below the average for similar Shire Counties elsewhere in England, but about on a par with national averages as a whole. I will not be in a position to report fully on comparative data until later in the Autumn term. However, early indications are that the overall performance in Norfolk, at Key Stages 1 and 2, is improving at slightly better than the national rate and is closing the gap with similar counties. It is already clear that improvement is happening more quickly than the national rate.

2.2 Members will recall the considerable detail on these issues which was made available to them during the production of Norfolk’s Education Development Plan, which has been approved by the Secretary of State, for the period 1999 to 2002. It sets out eight priorities to support our work in raising standards of achievement across all phases of schooling:

The results in English at KS3 continue to show a disappointing, relative standstill over the last three years in the numbers achieving level 5 and above. Results are nevertheless nearly seven percentage points up over the period 1995-’97. The drop of 1.4 percentage points this year is disappointing after four consecutive years of increase but Norfolk’s results remain on par with the national results in English.

As with the national picture there continues to be a significant difference between the performance of boys and girls in all years when KS3 English has been tested. The gap between boys and girls performance has widened slightly this year, back to 1998 levels. The percentage achieving L6+ is even more marked with 32.4% of girls but only 18.9% of boys reaching that standard.

There is a considerable weight of evidence of the need for a more systematic KS3 Literacy Strategy. This will be even more important for the current Y9 and Y8 who missed out on the major influences of the current National Literacy Strategy which focuses on KS2 and has been in place for just two years.

Mathematics scores have risen four percentage points in the last three years and the pattern is similar to that of other LEAs but Norfolk scores in 1999 were higher than the average for our statistical neighbours. The results this year are very similar to last year. Norfolk’s results continue to be above the national results (6

8% compared to 65% achieving L5+) but the gap has narrowed. The percentage achieving level 6+, at 42%, remains high compared with English. The performance of girls in mathematics has been consistently slightly below that of the boys but the gap in 2000 has narrowed from 2 or 3 percentage points to 0.6.

The results in science show an improvement over the last two years’ results with 63.7% achieving L5+ (66.3% for boys and 63.7% for girls). Norfolk children score above the national average (63.7% compared with 59% nationally) and very similar to the scores in similar authorities.

Girls’ performance in science continues to be significantly below that of boys at KS3.

Results at GCSE have been published for individual schools. A full analysis will be published when the complete L.E.A. data are available.

There has been a national improvement in the percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A* to C grades of 0.9 percentage points. The improvement for Norfolk was 0.4% points. Half of Norfolk secondary schools achieved such improvement and 38% of them improved by over 3 percentage points. Most schools with existing high levels of GCSE success maintained and improved on their previous results and some schools with previously below average results have shown improvements in excess of 10 percentage points. Over the summer the media has made much of the boy / girl differences in examination results. While there are differences overall the picture is very complex with many schools showing significant narrowing of the gap and in some cases there has been a decline in the number of girls achieving 5+A*-C grades. Norfolk has had a small research programme looking into this issue during the last year and a fuller report will be brought to members when all of this year’s data are available.

At A level, the results in Norfolk Sixth forms are slightly higher than last year’s. Almost half the county’s sixth forms have seen at least a one point rise in their average A level points score.

2.7 The preliminary analysis of the publicly available data on school performance paints a generally optimistic picture of the improving standards in Norfolk schools. There is still considerable challenge in the targets the L.E.A. has adopted in the Education Development Plan but, thanks to the hard work of the County’s teachers and their pupils, we should feel confident in our aim of achieving even higher standards.

b. School Improvement Information

2.8 There has been a significant reduction in the total number of schools having difficulties in the twelve months from September 1999 – September 2000. Taking the two categories reported by OFSTED, of "requiring special measures" and those with serious weaknesses there has been continuing success in removing schools from these categories. While there remain some well publicised examples of schools continuing to run into difficulty more schools are being removed from the special measures category than go into it. I would like to pay testimony to the hard work of Education Department staff and the staff and governors of the schools concerned.

Evidence from the L.E.A.’s own work with schools shows fewer needing substantial support in September 2000 than in September 1999. The training provided on school evaluation and the introduction of the Norfolk School Self-Review system has helped us improve this position significantly. It has enabled better targeting of support and challenge to those schools most in need of improvement.

While we still have too many schools in Special Measures and Serious Weakness categories there are genuine signs of continuous improvement across all phases of our County’s schools.

3.1 Adult Service

After a decrease in 1998/9, enrolments increased in 1999/2000 to 27,170 in over 350 venues, an increase of just over 4%. Some fees were reduced and concessions reintroduced for the over 60s.

A Community Technology Centre was established in Norwich in conjunction with New Deal in the Community. 15 community audits were conducted to identify local need. The Service has been involved in SRB initiatives across the County.

The Service has continued to play an active role in the provision of Family Learning and Basic Skills. It has maintained the Basic Skills Agency Kitemark and is working with partners on the production of a County Strategy.

4.1 The position of school balances at 31^st March 2000 is now known. Table A shows the movement of the total level of school balances summarised by sector, between 31^st March 1999, and 31^st March, 2000. Table B shows in a similar way the number of schools with deficits and balances.

4.3 The tables show that the total level of balances held by schools has increased slightly over the last year, but this is due to the inclusion for the first time of ex-GM Schools. Otherwise the balances position remains static overall, with a significant decline in the secondary sector.

The position with secondary schools is that balances have reduced by £586,000 or 61% over the year. The total number of schools in deficit at 31 March 2000 has also increased from 45 to 75 schools. The value of these deficits is £2.242m an increase of £1.305m or 58%.

4.4 Staffing Adjustments

69 Teachers left last August, compared to 88 the year before. Of these, 15 were redundancies and 43 early retirements.

The effect of re-organisation of schools and DfEE Headteacher scheme have been to boost the number of early retirements this year. Otherwise there would have been a drop this year to about 32 (36 last year).

New teachers recruited to Norfolk for September totalled over 500.

Experienced teachers 268

NQTs 247

Total 515

This is the highest for 3 years (346 in 1998 and 370 in 1999). Newly qualified teachers have increased by 100 over previous years. This is very pleasing considering the fiercely competitive market and the "supply" problem. It reflects our own improving teaching recruitment strategy and a growing national perception that Norfolk has an effective scheme of support for newly qualified teachers .

At the beginning of September there were 26 teaching vacancies known about in Primary and Secondary schools in the total teaching workforce of 5674. (These 26 vacancies are known at 11 September 2000).

In addition there are 32 schools with Acting Headteachers out of 455, and 8 covered by the County Headteacher Service (most of these are in the Primary Sector). In the 99/00 academic year 65 Headteacher posts were advertised (in a normal year about 40) and 20 of these were re-advertised indicating the difficulty of recruiting quality Primary Headteachers. However, the number of applications for Primary School Headships had increased recently, mainly due to the better pay structure.

In terms of overall recruitment the picture is as follows:

4.6 Norfolk has continued to passport all available funding into school budgets, and the budget to SSA comparison for Education shows that spend continues to exceed SSA for the Service.

4.7 The continuing tight financial position for schools described above, nevertheless, is real and results principally from the long term impact of unfunded increased in teachers’ pay awarded by Central Government in recent years adding to an historically stringent position in funding overall needs. Overall, last year was one of a general standstill in terms of the balances/deficits held by schools. Growth in cash funding has been translated into additional teaching posts, as shown by the recruitment figures.