Education and Early Years News September 2016

Colleagues – welcome back! We hope you have had well-earned holidays. 

We thought it would be useful to share an extensive (but by no means exhaustive) list of recent news and activity from across our Education and Early Help team. For more details do make contact with the relevant teams. Manager's names are in brackets.

2016 GCSE Headlines (David Townsend)

As you may be aware schools have moved from the A*-C measure to Progress 8 therefore comparison this year is somewhat complex. However, early indicative (but as yet unverified data) is below. Clearly this is not the sole source of our focus around school improvement but is a useful indicator for our School Improvement officers.

General headlines for GCSE results

  • In 2016 68.1% of Southampton pupils achieved an A*-C English GCSE. In 2015 63.5% of pupils achieved A*-C English GCSE an improvement of 4.6%
  • In 2016 62.1% of Southampton pupils achieved an A*-C Maths GCSE. In 2015 61.4% of pupils achieved A*-C Maths GCSE an improvement of 0.7%.
  • In 2016 54.9% of Southampton pupils achieved an A*-C English & Maths GCSE. In 2015 52.3% of pupils achieved A*-C English & Maths GCSE an improvement of 2.6%.
  • In 2016 20.5% of Southampton pupils achieved an A*-C EBacc. In 2015 20.9% of pupils achieved A*-C EBacc a decrease of 0.4%.
  • In 2016 Southampton pupils achieved an attainment 8 score of 47.3. This was the first year that attainment 8 has been used as an accountability measure for all KS4 schools.

School Improvement team (David Townsend) – David has recently contracted with a number of former HM Inspectors who will work alongside Lynn, Alison and Glenda to deliver our statutory requirement to categorise all of our schools. All schools have been made aware of their link officer and should have a date agreed for the first visit.

Attendance strategy (Kerica Hunt)

The EWO team have been working in partnership with our schools focussing on our ‘Attendance Matters’ priority linked to the city’s Attendance Action Plan. The impact of this collective work has been reflected in data released at the end of last term.

Southampton’s Overall Primary Absence for the Autumn term 2015 was 3.8% achieving a national rank of 95th out of 152 local authorities. The national average was 3.6% therefore; Southampton’s performance of 3.8% was 0.2% above the national average.

Southampton’s Overall Secondary Absence for the Autumn term 2015 was 4.8% achieving a national rank of 94th out of 152 Local Authorities. The national average was 4.6% therefore; Southampton’s performance of 4.8% was 0.2% above the national average.

Southampton’s Primary School Persistent Absence for the Autumn term 2015 was 9.4% (1558 students) achieving a national rank of 89th out of 152 Local Authorities. The national average was 9.0% therefore, Southampton’s performance of 9.4% was 0.4% above the national average. For Southampton to have matched the national average, 66 less pupils needed to be classified as being persistently absent.

Southampton’s Secondary School Persistent Absence for the Autumn term 2015 was 11.6% (1163 students) achieving a national rank of 60th out of 152 Local Authorities. The national average was 12.1% therefore, Southampton’s performance of 11.6% was 0.5% below the national average.  

4 year olds within Southampton achieved an absence rate of 5.2% compared to a national average of 4.9%, a gap of 0.3%. Southampton achieved a national rank of 93rd out of 152 Local Authorities.

Youth Offending team (Stuart Webb)

In June, staff and pupils from Upper Shirley High School attended the Restorative Justice Council’s ‘Restorative Justice and Young People’ event in London with workers from Southampton Youth Offending Service. The group met with HRH the Princess Royal and had the opportunity to highlight the work of our Restorative Practice in Schools project. For the past eighteen months the Youth Offending Service has worked with seven schools in the city to support the development of restorative approaches in their establishments.

Young people from the YOS and the Compass School will be contributing to the Tate Exchange Programme in 2016/17; this will culminate in the young people being supported to facilitate two sessions at the Tate Modern in February 2017.

Admissions update (Ross Williams)

The team have had a busy summer processing applications and transfers: 311 children have been offered places in schools in the city to start this term (247 are for primary level; 64 for secondary schools). 172 of these 311 came from outside the city or overseas. 

Early Help/Early Years (Anne Downie/Simon Dennison)

The 2016 results of Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) assessment of all five year old children has again marked an improvement. The baseline test of five year olds’ communication, literacy, numeracy and social skills are an indicator of future success in school and in 2016 70% of Southampton’s children attained a ‘good level of development’, beating the national average and marking a ten-year high.

Families Matter (Jason Murphy)

In July we received fantastically positive feedback from DCLG on our work in support of this programme following a ‘spot-check’ visit; an excellent achievement and testament to the hard work of all those involved.

Music Service (including Southampton and Isle of Wight Music Hub (Kath Page)

In July the Music Service showcased the culmination of a lengthy piece of work with 2000+ of our city’s pupils in the Sounds of the Stadium event at St Mary’s Stadium – an incredible feat which included a whole range of skilled and talented children from all primary, secondary, special and FE level working alongside a range of professionals.

Virtual School

82% of our LAC are now in Good or better schools (last year it was 71%) and 92% of LAC are commence in schools within the statutory 20 days.

In other news, all schools will have recently received a number of guidance documents that support our work around inclusion and attendance, namely:

  • Managed Moves Guidance
  • Absence Coding Guidance
  • Elective Home Education Guidance
  • Children Missing Education Guidance and policy
  • Pupil Regulations

For further information do liaise with the relevant officer and please share these with your staff and governors.

Looking ahead key priority activities for this term in addition to “business as usual” include continuing with our business planning process; Ofsted preparation for School Improvement and SEND; taking forward the  Surplus& Deficit Policy (agree by School Forum this month); school categorisation process; the 0-19 integration programme with colleagues in health and taking forward our improvement plan. We will update you all as things move ahead.

We look forward to working with you, your staff and governors this academic year.

Kim Drake – Service Director, Childrens and Families
Jo Cassey – Service Lead, Education and Early Help

Southampton City Council children and families service - front door approach

As part of the improvement journey in children and families services, Southampton City Council recently commissioned Professor David Thorpe to undertake an extensive review of arrangements around our MASH front door. Dave has an extensive background of working successfully with local authorities and partnerships nationally in improving the experience in respect of referring concerns about children and young people. As a result, and without any change to current multi-agency MASH arrangements, which were remarked to be safeguarding children well, there has been a decision to adopt a new way of working using a single number to call, which will get you directly through to a dedicated team of skilled and experienced Social Workers whenever you want to discuss worries you might have about a child.

With no need to complete a written referral, it is intended that this approach will promote improved decision-making for children through collaborative professional conversations agreeing who is best placed to meet the needs of a child and next steps.

The aim is for Professor Thorpe to provide specialist training to our front door team with a ‘go live’ date for our new model towards the end of October 2016. In the meantime we will be communicating with partners through various means and events to ensure all are confident about this exciting and positive new development.

For more information contact: phil.watson@southampton.gov.uk

Help prevent the spread of flu

The beginning of the autumn term also signals the start of the flu season. It’s important to get vaccinated against flu, not only to protect yourself but also to protect the most vulnerable around you. This makes it especially important for those working with children and young people.

You may be eligible for a free vaccine if you have a long-term health condition, are a carer or are in one of the other at-risk groups defined by the NHS. The best time to have the vaccine is between September and early November, so get in touch with your local GP surgery or pharmacy to book in your flu jab today. Even if you’re not eligible for a free jab, it’s well worth the small fee to ensure you and those you care for and work with stay well this winter.

STARS Active Travel programme

Would you like to encourage more of your pupils to walk, scoot and cycle to school while easing traffic congestion around the school site? Contact our Schools Travel Officer, Hazel Agombar for more information about the STARs active travel proramme.

Road Safety Week 21-27 November 2016

Educators are being encouraged to register now for Road Safety Week 2016 (21-27 November). The UK’s biggest road safety event, coordinated by charity Brake, is a great opportunity for teachers to engage all pupils with road safety by using free resources and teaching aides. This year’s theme is encouraging everyone to make the Brake Pledge - six simple steps to help make our roads safer.

MRF the monkey

On the hunt for the 'Unusual Suspects'! 

As mentioned in our last bulletin, children can win a £30 voucher prize for the best picture, photograph, poem or short story inspired by the 'Unusual Suspects' of recycling.

Closing date for entries is Friday 14 October.

For more information please visit our website, or contact the Recycling team on 023 8083 2466 or email recycling@southampton.gov.uk

 Success Header

The YOS Arts Group Success

Students from The Compass School who have been part of Southampton YOS Arts Group students have been invited to participate in the Tate Modern Exchange Programme for 2016/2017 meaning that they will be supported to facilitate two sessions at the Tate Modern in February 2017.

Staff Success

Well done to the following staff, who have all successfully passed their Level 4 Work with Parents City and Guilds qualification.

Children’s Centres – Camille Ramsden, Emma Childe, Sarah Newman, Debby Sweeney

CIN team – Hayleigh Smith

Families Matter – Nora Hornyak, Hayley Amos, (Laura Begley – now left)

Bassett Green Primary School – Cindy Gilmore

Regional Ofsted Workshop

Suzi Hayward and Mike Adams recently presented a case study on the provision for disadvantaged pupils at Bitterne Manor Primary to a regional Ofsted workshop. This is a great testament to the school, who were judged outstanding by inspectors last term. Suzi and Mike did a great job engaging the audience and are generously willing to share their experiences and case study material further within the city. Ofsted are stepping up their focus on how well schools serve this group of pupils, including the disadvantaged and more able, through its 2016-17 inspection activity. It is also keen, through such workshops, to distill shared school expertise about what works. I am hoping this will result in a diagnostic tool for schools to use as part of their processes for self and peer review.

Let's keep the spotlight on this issue when schools are next convening together. In the meantime well done Suzi and Mike!