EDUCATION REVIEW PANEL

Item No.11

14 November 2001

 

 

EDUCATION IN NORFOLK AUTUMN 2001

(Report by Director of Education)

This report highlights some of the major features of the Education Service at the start of the 2001/2002 school year.

 
  1. INTRODUCTION

    2. 1.1 This is the third annual Director’s report. Members receive many reports on aspects of the education Service throughout the year. This report is intended to give Members a clear picture of how the Education Service is performing at the beginning of the new academic year. This report deals not only with schools, but with the wide range of education provision in Norfolk.

  2. THE PERFORMANCE OF NORFOLK SCHOOLS

2.1 For some time attainment in Norfolk has tended to be slightly below the average for similar Shire Counties elsewhere in England, but similar to the national averages as a whole. The 2001 test and examination data won’t be confirmed until late November when detailed comparative information will be available. Early indications are that the overall performance in Norfolk, for 7 year olds (Key Stage 1), 14 year olds (Key Stage 3) and 16 year olds (Key Stage 4), is improving at slightly better than the national rate and is closing the gap with similar counties. Performance for 11 year olds (Key Stage 2) fell slightly this year in Norfolk and nationally but performance in recent years still shows Norfolk as the most improved Shire County for this key stage.

2.2 The Norfolk Education Development Plan (1999-2002) was approved by members and subsequently by the Secretary of State for Education. It set out considerable detail on the issues we are addressing to raise standards in Norfolk’s schools. It sets out eight priorities to support our work in raising standards of achievement across all phases of schooling:

 

The achievement of our children and their teachers is to be commended and it is clear that the Education Department has provided, through the Education Plan, considerable support to the improvements observed in the last few years.

 
  1. Performance by Norfolk pupils in the Summer of 2001
    1. Results, for Norfolk pupils, for the end of Key Stage National Curriculum Tests and GCSE examinations are now available and the key messages are set out below. Some of the figures may be subject to minor amendment when the results are finally confirmed in the coming weeks. Provisional national data has been provided and some comparisons are made where this is possible. When the full national data are published I will bring further reports to members if the picture changes.
    2. Key Stage 1

      3. 2.4.1 The percentage of pupils achieving Level 2 or above has increased in all tested areas. This represents evidence of exceptional, continuous improvement.

      2.4.2 When comparing this years results with last year’s the increase for reading, writing and mathematics was between 0.8 and 1.8 percentage points with 84.3% achieving that standard in reading, 87.0% in writing and 92.1% in mathematics. Improvement in spelling was 3.9 percentage points with 74.9% now reaching the target standard. These results represent a remarkable improvement in performance for this age group since the introduction of the literacy and numeracy strategies. When comparing the 1998 and 2001 results we see an increase in the percentage of pupils reaching the expected level of;

      Reading + 6.3 percentage points

      Writing + 7.0 percentage points

      Spelling + 13.9 percentage points

      Mathematics + 7.1 percentage points.

      2.4.3 Significant annual improvement also occurred in the percentage of pupils achieving Level 2B compared with last year. Level 2B is considered to be the best

       

      indicator of future attainment; reading 69.0% (up 1.1), writing 60.0% (up 2.8) and mathematics 76.7% (up 3.5). These figures represent a considerable continuing achievement for the pupils and their teachers in Norfolk’s infant, first and primary schools. The gap between the number of boys and girls achieving these standards continues to be large in English, around 9 percentage points but only around 2 in mathematics.

    3. Key Stage 2

      4. 2.5.1 When comparing the results in 2000 and 2001 the percentage of pupils achieving Level 4 or above (the nationally expected standard) has increased in science, remained the same in English and declined slightly in mathematics.

      2.5.2 74% of children achieved that standard in English in 2001. When compared with the Norfolk target, agreed in the Education Development Plan, of 76% to achieve that level by the year 2001 this year’s results are slightly disappointing. We still have a considerable way to go to achieve the 2002 target of 82%. The gap between boy and girl performance has been closing in recent years but widened again this year. With 80% of girls reaching this standard this is nearly twelve percentage points greater than for boys.

      2.5.3 The mathematics results were 68.4% (compared with 70% last year and 66% in 1999). This is still close to the level of the numeracy targets agreed in the EDP, of 70% by the year 2001. Boys slightly outperform girls in this subject. Results in science continue to be good and improving with 87% of pupils reaching Level 4+ compared with 85% last year. Boys and girls results are the same in this subject.

      2.5.4 While it is disappointing that the recent trend of improvement has had a slight dip this year (in line with the national trend) the overall improvement in performance in this key stage has been remarkable. Norfolk remains the most improved Shire County. Between 1998 and 2001 Norfolk’s results have increased by:

      13 percentage points in English.

      13 percentage points in mathematics and

      19 percentage points in science.

      2.5.5 While not every school sees these levels of improvement there have been some remarkable success stories and the results should do much to continue to build confidence in our schools that the challenging targets for the next few years can be reached. The literacy and numeracy advisory teams will continue to target support on those schools with greatest need. I have been impressed by the response from those schools we have worked most intensively with in the last year, they have made good use of the additional training and support. It is clear that the schools that have received the greatest levels of training and advice have shown the highest levels of improvement.

       

       

       

    4. Secondary education - Key Stage 3, GCSE and A level.

2.6.1 The results in English at KS3 have shown a 1.6 percentage point rise. This is very good news after several years of relative standstill in the numbers achieving level 5 and above.

2.6.2 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 again this year. 75% of girls achieve the standard we aspire to while only 57% of boys reach the same standard.

2.6.3 We have started to introduce the new literacy strategy for Key Stage 3. There is a considerable weight of evidence that a more systematic KS3 Literacy Strategy will help schools to continue this improvement. 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 three years.

2.6.4 Mathematics scores have risen another percentage point this year. The pattern is similar to that of other similar LEAs but Norfolk scores continue to be generally above the national average. The percentage achieving level 6+ remains high compared with English. The performance of girls in mathematics has been consistently slightly below that of the boys but the gap in 2001 has narrowed from 2 or 3 percentage points to virtually the same levels of performance for the last two years.

2.6.5 The results in science show another significant improvement over the last year's results with 69% achieving L5+, an increase of five percentage points over last year. Norfolk schools score above the national average. The gap between girls and boys performance in science has narrowed though boys still slightly outperform girls in this subject.

2.6.6 At GCSE there has been a national improvement in the percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A* to C grades of about one percentage point. In Norfolk the improvement has been 1.5 percentage points. The county has now reached the 50% mark in the percentage of students reaching this standard. More than half of Norfolk’s secondary schools achieved such improvement and 33% of them improved by over 5 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. High schools are well on their way to achieving the target of 52% by the year 2002. It is likely that the next significant improvement in GCSE results will be in three years time when the impact of the various national strategies for improvement in key stages two and three take effect.

2.6.7 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 LEA 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.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT INFORMATION
    1. There has been a significant reduction in the total number of schools having difficulties in the twelve months from September 2000 – September 2001. 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. Norfolk has had a history of an unacceptably large number of schools requiring special measures. We now have well established systems which enable the schools and the LEA to know when schools are vulnerable. While there are times when individual schools may run into difficulty I am confident that given a reasonable supply of good teachers we will meet our target of not having any schools in this category. I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of Education Department staff and the staff and governors of the schools concerned who have brought about this significant improvement in the school system.
    2. Evidence from the LEA’s own work with schools shows fewer needing substantial support in September 2001 than in September 2000. The training provided on school evaluation and the introduction of the Norfolk School Self-Review system have helped us improve this position significantly. This has enabled better targeting of support and challenge to those schools most in need of improvement.

2.10 Overall there are genuine signs of continuous improvement across all phases of our County’s schools. While there may well be individual cases of schools running into difficulty I feel that we are now approaching the point where the system of schools as a whole, is more secure than at any time in recent years, However, this position cannot be taken for granted. It is dependent on our continuing support and challenge, appropriate resources being available and that the supply of good quality teachers holds up.

 
  1. LIFETIME LEARNING: THE ADULT AND YOUTH SERVICES

3.1 Adult Service

The Adult Education Service has continued to develop its outreach provision across Norfolk. Over 300 venues attracted 33,000+ enrolments in 2000/01, an increase on the previous year, Basic Skills development resulted in an increase in students from 1568 to 2270. There was also significant new provision in Information Technology (600 new students) and our community provision for adults with learning disabilities increased from 314 to 1086 students. Family Learning worked with 70 schools and involved 750 families in a wide variety of learning activities. Additional personal development programmes have been developed, particularly in the area of counselling. All funding for the service is now received from the Learning and Skills Council. £4.79m has been secured for 2001/02 (£3.3m for accredited work leading to qualifications, £1.46m for non accredited work).
    1. The Youth Service

The Youth Service has worked with a significant number of partners both in the public and the voluntary sector. Over 300 youth work projects were delivered (93% of which were graded as satisfactory or above) and contact made with nearly 15,000 young people. Joint work with High Schools has developed well and each school has a named worker. The work by the County Youth Forum Co-ordinator with young people and a range of partners has been firmly established and the first Norfolk Youth Parliament elections have been held. The Service is significantly involved in development work with the Connexions Service.

3.3 In 2000/2001 both services have adjusted well. Both are facing the challenges of

working with an emerging Connexions Service and the Learning and Skills Council which has taken over the direct funding of Adult learning.

 
  1. SCHOOLS' PERSONNEL AND FINANCE ISSUES

4.1 The position of school balances at 31st March 2001 is now known. Table A shows the movement of the total level of school balances summarised by sector, between 31st March 2000, and 31st March, 2001. Table B shows in a similar way the number of schools with deficits and balances.

 Table A: School Balances – Value

 

 

As at 31 March 2000

As at 31 March 2001

Change between years

 

Balance

£m

Overspend

£m

Total

£m

Balance

£m

Overspend

£m

Total

£m

£m

%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Primary

8.039

-0.152

7.887

11.462

-0.084

11.378

3.491

44.3

Secondary

2.313

-1.085

1.228

2.549

-1.892

0.657

-0.571

-46.5

Special

0.510

-0.005

0.505

0.605

-0.005

0.600

0.095

18.8

Total

10.862

-1.242

9.620

14.616

-1.981

12.635

3.015

31.3

 

 

 

Table B: School Balances - Number of Schools

 

As at 31 March 2000

As at 31 March 2002

Change between years

 

Balance

No

Overspend

No

Total

No

Balance

No

Overspend

No

Total

No

In Balance

No

Overspent

No

Primary

369

22

391

379

9

388

10

-13

Secondary

37

15

52

36

16

52

-1

1

Special

11

1

12

10

2

12

-1

1

Total

417

38

455

425

27

452

8

-11

4.3 The tables show that the total level of balances held by schools has increased slightly over the last year

The position with secondary schools is that balances have reduced by £571,000

4.4 Staffing Adjustments

The Government's Standards Fund financial support for schools included support for teaching and non-teaching staff in schools. This and the small number of School Organisation Reviews mainly affecting King's Lynn (Gaywood Junior and Rosebery Avenue First schools) and Aylsham (closure of Aylsham Nursery onto St Michael's and John of Gaunt First schools) resulted in fewer staffing adjustments taking place this year.

 
    1. Recruitment of Teachers

The national position on the recruitment of teachers has been reflected in Norfolk, however the number of vacancies in September 2001 was not substantially different from the previous year. Norfolk successfully recruited an additional 265 newly qualified teachers to the county from September 2001. Expansion of existing retraining courses has enabled 100 ‘Returners’ a year to prepare for re-entry into the profession locally. Initiatives to increase further, the opportunities for Norfolk based Initial Teacher Training, are well advanced.

Some schools have reported particular problems in finding suitable supply teachers to cover absences. In response to this situation Education Personnel Services has established an out of office hours telephone service enabling schools to request help with the contacting and placement of supply teachers. This service has been successfully operating since February 2001. Active steps are also being taken to increase the pool of supply teachers available to Norfolk schools.

4.6 Performance Management

The Government introduced from September 2000, a Leadership Spine for Headteachers, Deputies and a new category of staff, Assistant Headteachers, with an accompanying re-alignment of pay scales. For teaching staff at the top of their pay scale, threshold payments were granted to around 97% of qualifying teachers, in line with the national average.

At the same time, a national system of Performance Management (appraisal) was introduced, in which links to pupil progress are a strong feature.

These elements form part of the Government's drive to improve standards of teaching and learning but their effectiveness cannot be measured immediately.

4.7 Norfolk’s funding of school budgets.

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.

4.8 The continuing tight financial position for schools described above, nevertheless, is real and results principally from the long term impact of unfunded increases 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.

 

 
  1. OTHER SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE LAST YEAR

In the last year I have tried to develop a greater sense of achievement in the Education Service. We have started to be active in celebrating the many successes evident in our schools and in the Education Department. In this brief section I want to illustrate the success by highlighting a few which have had significant impact:
    1. The Education service has improved its planning systems and has published a summary of its Service Plan, Achieving Excellence, to schools. This planning process is making it possible for the Service to monitor its activities more effectively.
    2. There has been a significant reduction in permanent exclusions within the County, which is part of an ongoing trend. In 2000/2001 there were 64 permanent exclusions, a fall of 21% on the year and 64% over two years.
    3. The service has recently hosted its third annual conference for headteachers. This event, held at the University of East Anglia, attracts well over 300 of the County’s headteachers and is an important event in helping create a vision for the future of Norfolk Education.
    4. The Service has completed its Learning Statement and this has now been distributed to all schools and many other places of learning in the County. It is hoped that all will embrace the principles set out in this document as central to the approach we are taking to learning in Norfolk.
    5. The Education service continues to embrace the Best Value Review process and is using this to evaluate, in detail, the way its services are organised and the effectiveness of their work.
    6. The Service continues to provide high quality training to teachers and to schools in record numbers. The evaluations of this training show very high levels of satisfaction with the quality of provision.
    7. The LEA has continued to support Specialist Schools, of which there are now 12 in Norfolk and also supports the establishment of Beacon schools of which there are 6 primary, 5 secondary and 1 special in the County.
    8. During the last year we have carried out a detailed evaluation of the progress the LEA has made in implementing its action plan following the OFSTED inspection of the LEA in 1999. The evaluation team of officers, governors and headteachers judged that the LEA has made good progress on all the issues.
    9. The LEA has been very successful in attracting external funding to the Authority from the PFI bid to support development in the Great Yarmouth area and in the market towns to New Opportunities Funding for Study Support and for Sports and Arts development.
    10. We have created a successful Early Years Development Plan and recruited staff to lead on implementing the strategies which are beginning to ensure that all 3 and 4 year olds will be able to access places of learning to support them in reaching the learning goals established for pre-school children.
    11. We are becoming more focused in meeting the diverse needs of various parts of the County. We are currently working hard to break down the perceived isolation of colleagues working in the Education Service in the west of the County.

 

  1. SUMMARY

6.1 The Education Service in Norfolk is improving rapidly in respect of the number of schools in difficulty and pupil performance is also making rapid improvement against demanding targets. Funding remains tight across sectors, and particularly so for Secondary schools. Teacher recruitment is being closely monitored and while there are signs that Norfolk is recruiting well at NQT level the overall supply of teachers is a cause for concern if it worsens.

6.2 Significant challenges face the Education Service in the near future, but planning for future development is progressing well and the dedication and hard work of all staff in the Service both in schools and without gives confidence in our ability to meet the challenges. It will be important to at least safeguard funding for the Service and to look critically at our significant budget pressures as they affect the performance of the Education service as a whole.

7 RECOMMENDATIONS

That Members discuss the issues raised by this Report.

 

8 OFFICER CONTACT

Dr Bryan Slater 01603 223300

 

If you would like this report in large print, audio, Braille, alternative format or in a different language please contact

Tel: 01603 222377

Fax: 01603 222119

Email: janet.evans.edu@norfolk.gov.uk