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Contact: John Clarke, Assistant County Education Officer, Standards and Improvement Branch, County Office. Tel 01962 846459

1 Summary

1.1 This report summarises the Ofsted report statistical profile for Hampshire in standards achieved by pupils in the county, at the end of Key Stages 1, 2, 3, and 4. The report also provides information taken from Ofsted inspections carried out in schools in Hampshire.

2 Introduction

2.1 Each year the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) provides Hampshire with its statistical profile. This profile summarises the standards achieved by pupils in the county at the end of Key Stage 1 (7 year olds), Key Stage 2 (11 year olds), Key Stage 3 (14 year olds) and Key Stage 4 (16 year olds). It also provides summary information taken from the Ofsted inspections carried out in schools in Hampshire. The full documents are available in the Members' Room.

2.2 The standards data are for 2001. The inspection data include all inspections carried out up to July 2001.

3 Analyses and Conclusions - Standards

3.1 Hampshire's performance is compared with the average for its `statistical neighbours'. The list of these counties appears as Appendix 2. The data are numerical but the county is also placed into a category for each item, grades A-E. On a number of items, Hampshire scores a `C' against its like counties, or `neighbours'. It is difficult to determine therefore whether it is doing slightly better or slightly worse than it should. To help interpretation, the difference in percentage points is included in the tables below. If the figure is positive, Hampshire is doing better than expected. If it is negative, then it is doing worse. Anything better than the average for like counties is a cause for some celebration and anything worse is a cause for some concern. Whether an A, B, D or E is awarded depends on the distance from the average. It is wrong to assume that one of Hampshire's like counties has received an `A' and one an `E', on all the items.

3.2 Hampshire is also given a grade that summarises its performance against the nation as a whole. This is calculated differently and it would be expected that Hampshire would do better than the national average on all measures. The difference in percentage points between Hampshire and the national average is also given in these tables to aid interpretation.

4 Key Stage 1, 2001 results: all pupils - headlines

4.1 This represents a good performance overall. The picture in writing at level 3 is complicated. Two factors explain the relative disappointment here. In the first place, there are questions that relate to the maturity of seven year olds and the degree to which their experience of life equips them to reach the higher level in writing, even though they might be able to do so in reading. The second relates to the way in which Hampshire has monitored the assessment of writing at Key Stage 1. There is some evidence to suggest that this has been done more rigorously in this county that in many others and that this, in itself, has depressed Hampshire scores.

4.2 Although girls did better than boys in reading, the gap between them was less marked that in like counties.

5 Key Stage 2, 2001 results: all pupils - headlines

5.1 Girls did considerably better in English than boys, although both performed well against like counties. Boys did better in mathematics than girls.

6 Key Stage 3, 2001 results: all pupils - headlines

6.1 Girls did much better in English than boys, but both did as well as in like counties.

7 Key Stage 4, 2001 results: all pupils - headlines

7.1 Girls did better than boys on all these measures, but the differences were in line with those in like counties.

8 Inspection Data

8.1 Ofsted provides three types of data in the statistical profile: data from summaries of each school's last inspection; comparisons between the last and the previous inspections; and some data relating to those schools that have been inspected in the second cycle. This summary concentrates on the first two of these. Ofsted provides comparative data of Hampshire's performance against statistical neighbours and England as a whole. For this summary, only the comparison against like counties is considered, although the complete picture can be seen in Appendix 1.

9 Primary Schools: data based on the last inspection of each school

9.1 In their last inspections, Hampshire primary schools are doing much better than those in like counties, according to Ofsted. Overall, 23.6% of them were judged to be very good schools compared with 13.9% in like counties. Fewer schools required some improvement, although 3.1% still required substantial improvement, as against 1.5% in like counties. Nevertheless, this represent a substantial improvement overall on previous years, including the proportion that required substantial improvement.

9.2 Ofsted judged that 20.3% of Hampshire primary schools had very good standards, compared with 10.4% of primary schools in like counties. About 4% of schools required substantial improvement, both in Hampshire and in like counties, in terms of the standards they achieved.

9.3 29.6% of Hampshire primary schools were judged to provide a very good quality of education, compared with 17.6% in like counties. 4.9% required substantial improvement on this measure compared with 2.5% of schools in like counties.

9.4 62.3% of primary schools in Hampshire were judged to have a very good school climate, compared with 54.9% in like counties. The numbers that required substantial improvement in this area were very small indeed, in both Hampshire and like counties.

9.5 Hampshire primary schools, overall, are much better managed than elsewhere. 48.9% of them were judged to be very good for management and efficiency, compared with 33% in like counties. Even here, though, 4.8% of Hampshire schools required substantial improvement compared with 2.7% in like counties.

9.6 The general conclusion is that Hampshire primary schools are doing much better, overall, than the schools in like counties. There is still the same polarisation as has been noticed in previous years, but the proportion of schools that need substantial improvement is falling and the general trend is very positively upwards.

10 Primary Schools: data based on a comparison between the last and the previous inspection of each school

10.1 Ofsted provides figures that give the percentage change between the previous and last inspection, in terms of the proportions of schools judged to be very good, good, requiring some improvement and requiring substantial improvement. These figures, too, are extremely positive for Hampshire and demonstrate the success of the work being done by schools, and by those who support schools.

10.2 The percentage change in terms of very good schools, overall, is 10.6, upwards for Hampshire as against 0.3 for statistical neighbours. The percentage change in terms of good schools is 9.1, upwards, compared with 4.5 in like counties. That relating to schools requiring some improvement is 14.9, downwards as against 4.0 downwards in like counties and, in terms of those requiring substantial improvement the percentage change is 4.8 downwards in Hampshire compared with 0.7 in like counties. This represents a marked upward trend.

10.3 Ofsted has graded 73% of Hampshire primary schools to be good or very good, compared with 59% of schools in like counties. The most dramatic change is in management and efficiency that, currently, includes leadership. The percentage change here is 25.9, upwards, for schools judged to be very good in this area. This contrasts markedly with schools in like counties where the change is 11.8. The LEA takes the view that part of the reason for this change has been the quality of its support to schools in strategic planning and in leadership training.

11 Secondary Schools: data based on the last inspection of each school

11.1 The picture here is positive, although not as positive as that for primary schools. Overall 25% of Hampshire secondary schools were judged to be very good, compared with 22% in those of statistical neighbours. No school was judged to need substantial improvement against 2% in like counties.

11.2 Standards were judged to be higher overall in Hampshire. 30.4% of schools were judged to have standards that were very good compared with 24% in the schools of like counties, while only 1.4% were judged to have standards in need of substantial improvement, against 4.2% in like counties.

11.3 The quality of education, which includes teaching, was judged to be slightly worse in Hampshire than in like counties: 19.1% very good in Hampshire and 20% in like counties, although Hampshire had no school where these needed substantial improvement. There was a similar picture in terms of school climate. In 50.7% of schools in Hampshire it was judged to be very good compared with 53.5% in like counties, but on this measure, again, there was no Hampshire school that required substantial improvement and fewer that required some improvement than in like counties.

11.4 Overall, the proportion of schools where management and efficiency was judged to be good or very good was higher in Hampshire than in like counties, but slightly fewer were judged to be very good. The proportion of Hampshire schools in which these needed to be improved was very small: 1.5% compared with 2.4% in like counties.

11 Secondary Schools: data based on a comparison between the last and the previous inspection of each school

12.1 The picture here is mixed. The percentage change in the proportion of schools judged overall to be very good was 3.6, upwards, compared with 4.1 downwards in like counties. However, the change in schools judged to be good was 11.0, downwards as against 1.4 downwards in like counties. The proportion of schools requiring some improvement in Hampshire has risen by 11.4 percentage points compared with 6.2 in like counties, although the proportion requiring substantial improvement has fallen by 4.1% points compared with 0.7 in like counties. Although this may be too simplistic, it looks as though some good schools improved to become very good, some schools requiring substantial improvement got better; but some that had been good were judged on their next inspection to require some improvement. This is probably due to the use of more sophisticated performance data by Ofsted inspectors in the second inspections, rather than any absolute decline in the quality of schools.

13 Recommendations

That the Panel is asked to:

1. Note the contents of this report.

2. Agree that it be distributed to the headteachers and Chairmen of Governors of all Hampshire primary and secondary schools.

Section 100D Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None