Archived decisions

Contact: John Clarke, Assistant County Education Officer, Standards and Improvement Branch, County Office, Tel 01962 846459 or Kate Marron, County Inspector/Adviser for English, Tel 023 8081 4047

1 Summary

1.1 Excellent progress in English for 7 - 11 year olds was made in Hampshire between 1998 and 2000. Since then the position has been static. Hampshire has not hit its target for 2002, along with the vast majority of LEAs and the nation as a whole. If standards are to rise further some approaches need to be continued, particularly in the teaching of reading, and new approaches, particularly to the teaching of writing, need to be adopted. The LEA needs to change the way it targets support and all schools need to learn from the practices of the best, in establishing structures that support the raising of standards in English.

2 Introduction and Background

2.1 Not all the information in relation to Key Stage 2 results in English is available at the time of writing this paper, but an oral update can be given at the meeting. In general terms, however, a number of points are clear:

· The percentage of Hampshire's 11 year olds reaching level 4+ in English fell by 0.5% in 2002. Across the country as a whole, results were the same as last year, with some LEAs making slight improvements and some experiencing larger decreases than Hampshire.

· The position of Hampshire among its statistical neighbours, on provisional figures, appears to be the same as last year.

· A minority of pupils did not make the expected progress from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2. In particular, some did not make the expected two levels progress from level 2 to level 4. If all the pupils made this progress, then Hampshire would hit its target of 88% of pupils at level 4+.

2.2 There is no doubting the hard work and commitment of teachers in primary schools in Hampshire and their concern for pupils. There is also no doubt that difficulties with recruitment and retention of teaching staff has caused problems in some schools in the last two years. However, more analysis and more evaluation needs to be done and more thought given to the approaches being used in the teaching of English and in the support for that teaching, in order to help policy and practice to be shaped for the next two years. In particular, detailed analysis of results, school by school, is needed, because there are some major differences between them in the proportion of pupils making two levels of progress. Further evaluation needs to be made of the impact of the work of inspector/advisers and consultants; attendance at training, school by school; and the effectiveness of the structures put in place by school leaders and managers to support their teachers in raising standards in English. All this work will be carried out during the autumn term 2002, but initial analysis suggests that there are things that can be started now.

3 Proposed Action

3.1 Eleven points are covered here. They are not the only actions that need to be considered, but they are those that are likely to establish the cultural approach which will achieve higher standards in English in the county and those that are likely to have most practical effects.

3.1.1 Schools and support services have worked hard and there should be no question of blame for not, collectively, hitting the county's target. It is equally important not to see the national picture, where the target has been missed as well, as reason for lack of action in Hampshire. It is, instead, important to identify the professional ways forward for the teaching of English. In the mid 1990s, when the thrust for higher standards began, the educational community, nationally and locally, did not know all the factors that lead to effective progress in pupils' English, particularly in learning how to write effectively.

3.1.2 Many schools, though not the majority, have consistently achieved two levels of progress for their pupils in Key Stage 2. It is important to learn from the approaches they have taken. A differentiated approach to support, advice and training is essential.

3.1.3 Current approaches to the teaching of reading have been successful. The way in which reading is taught in primary schools has already changed for good. The improvement in the teaching of reading is a success story and standards in reading are far higher than they were five years ago. The successful approaches that have been developed, particularly guided reading, need to be continued.

3.1.4 Less progress has been made in writing. There are new approaches and these need time to become established in schools. Two features of the teaching of writing are fundamental to pupils' progress. The first is guided writing and the second is the nature of the interventions that teachers make when children are engaged on extended writing. Pupils' standards in writing are not improved by simply leaving them to get on with it.

3.1.5 The place of talk within the English curriculum is important. There is emerging research evidence that points to a causal link between the talk used by teachers and pupils about writing, and the quality of writing itself. If standards in writing are to improve, attention is needed to the teaching of talk, allowing children to improve their vocabulary, their sentence construction and indeed to learn, in English, to `talk like a book', to rehearse their writing in talk and, thereby, to improve their standards.

3.1.6 Many headteachers have developed effective practices to support the improvement of standards in English. For standards to rise across the board, headteachers need to be taking a lead in:

· Monitoring pupils' learning in English, ensuring the involvement of pupils and taking account of the principles of assessment for learning;

· Evaluating their progress against the national expectation of a two level growth in reading and writing across the key stage;

· Planning, with teachers, amendments in their practice and the interventions that may be needed for individual pupils or groups of pupils if their progress is insufficient.

3.1.7 The county currently administers the NfER Reading Test in year 4. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is producing an alternative year 4 test, that assesses pupils against the National Curriculum. The LEA should abandon the former and adopt the latter, so that schools have a tool that will allow them to judge more accurately the progress of individual pupils from Key Stage 1. This would be an important change, and elected member support would be sought.

3.1.8 The LEA should use data from the year 4 QCA test, as soon as they become available, to identify those schools where its support should be focused. Currently, the best that can be done is to use the historical data from year 6. The new approach would help individual pupils and schools by identifying where help is needed, and providing it in good time. From 2003, the support should be given to those schools where the progress of pupils from year 2 is less than the national expectation. The LEA will, among other activities, use its staff to support the year 5 and 6 teachers in those schools.

3.1.9 The current Education Development Plan sets out clearly that the LEA's monitoring of schools in this area will shift from whole school monitoring to the monitoring of the performance of individual pupils and groups of pupils. This new approach will begin with the first round of monitoring standards in English in the spring of 2003.

3.1.10 The evaluations of all the training that is done by the county to support the teaching of English, suggest that programmes and events are well received. However, the take-up by schools is uneven and, as teachers move from school to school, the overall training that schools have received varies. An audit of training in the teaching of English in Key Stage 2 will be made. Information from the audit will be used to continue to revise and update training plans and invite particular schools to specific programmes.

3.1.11 The specific work on classroom practice is central to this action plan. Essential to it also is integrated support by a range of services. The Educational Psychology Service, special needs advisers and early years experts are amongst those contributing to the development of the culture necessary to increase self-esteem and confidence through mastery of English.

Recommendations

That the Panel should:

1. Recognise the progress that has been made in raising pupils' standards in English in Key Stage 2.

2. Recognise that much work remains to be done particularly in writing

3. Support the proposed actions set out in this report and instruct officers to consult with partners on replacing the year 4 English Test with the Year 4 QCA test.

Section 100D Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

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

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