Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Education and Skills

The Board considered a briefing note of the Director of Education & Skills regarding the impact that Covid has had on school readiness and what services were doing to support and improve school readiness.

The report noted that in England a child’s progress was reviewed between the age of 2 and 3 by an early year’s practitioner, or health visitor and again by their class teacher at the end of the school year in which they turn 5 (reception).  The teacher used their judgement to assess a child’s attainment against the national checklist of ‘Good Level of Development (GLD)’ Framework for the early years foundation stage.  This was the key national indicator of whether a child was ‘ready for school’, this was a measure of attainment, not progress.

It wasn’t possible to claim a full understanding of the impact that Covid has had on school readiness.  The government temporarily disapplied and modified certain elements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework so no profile data was available for July 2020 or 2021.  Children born immediately before or during the pandemic had not yet started school, so any impact on their expected level of development was not yet known.

It was recognised that high quality early years education combined with a supportive home learning environment were known precursors to later educational success.  Children would have had varying pre-school experience.  For those attending early years settings, access may have been disrupted and it was probable that the level of uptake of early years provision had been detrimentally impacted by Covid concerns and parental demand because more parents had been at home.

Prior to the Covid 19 pandemic, school readiness was an area of focus in Coventry.  The data taken from 2019 indicated that overall, 69% of Coventry children were ‘school ready’ compared to a national average of 71%.  However, the breakdown for children identified as disadvantaged fell to 55% compared to a national average of 56.6%.

The report detailed studies investigating the impact of Covid-19 on family life and early childhood development and work with teachers in schools where children started reception in September 2020.  Feedback from Coventry Schools and Early Years Providers in Coventry supported these findings including, concerns that the children entering the EYFS exhibited poorer social skills and other indicators of GLD were lower such as:

•  They were often more comfortable in learning on their own or with a very small number of other children.

•  Unable to share

•  Some children were overwhelmed by a busy classroom, preferring quieter, more solitary activities

•  More children seeking adult attention and some evidence of building unhealthy attachments with adults

•  Language delay and confidence in communication

•  Children enjoying sharing books with adults

•  Gross and fine motor skills were less well developed, and balance and co-ordination were below levels expected

•  Overall tiredness within the day and across the week – whilst this had always been a factor it was now more pronounced

•  Unable to sustain concentration

•  Significantly higher number of children presenting with special educational needs (SEND)

•  (Nursery) – more children not yet toileting independently and reliant on ‘pull-ups’ than ordinarily expected

On a more positive note, some schools had also reported that children had settled well into daily routines and were starting to make gains in their learning through good progress.

In Autumn 2020 Coventry’s uptake of 2-year-old funded places was 61% compared to 76% in Autumn 2019.  Uptake of 3- and 4-year-old funded places was 90% in Autumn 2020 compared to 92% in Autumn 2019. Throughout the pandemic there had been a sufficient number of high-quality childcare places for keyworker and vulnerable children, including using reserves to support holiday periods and provide better funding certainty for providers.

The quality profile of Coventry’s early years providers across the city remained high.  The percentage of childcare providers on non-domestic premises achieving good or better Ofsted outcomes was at 99% even though the overall number of providers in this category decreased.  Childcare on domestic premises remained at 97% of providers achieving good or better.  Also, 91% of schools with a Nursery class achieved good or better outcomes at inspection, 7% required improvement and 2% were found to be inadequate.

The ongoing number of children identified as requiring support for presenting SEN was continuing to increase month by month across both early years and schools’ settings, saturating the capacity of support services.  Early years health and education services, continued to be vigilant in identifying children who required high levels of support, to successfully transition to school in September 2021.  Consequently, a higher number of children than ever before began school with an Education Health and Care Plan in place. 

Over the last year Coventry had implemented the Early Years Team restructure, which was to increase the emphasis and level of focus on quality in the sector.  An Integrated Early Years Strategy had been launched, which included collaborative work related to closing attainment gaps, increasing uptake of early years provision, providing resources to support families, and offering wider opportunities for training and development.

Schools had received recovery funding to support pupils through a recovery premium, national tutoring programme and school-led tutoring grant. Also Coventry had been invited to join a pre-reception ‘Building on Success programme’ to provide high quality training to early years staff in order to support children who were at risk of falling behind at a critical stage of their development and have nominated early years providers who meet the criteria.

The Board questioned officers, received responses, and discussed the following:

•  celebrating and sharing good practice regarding expectations for children being ready for school

•  encouraging play at school

•  schools being an environment conducive to learning i.e., ready for pupils such as ventilated adequately

•  virtual visits providing support during lockdown periods

The Board were encouraged to promote the 2-,3- and 4-year-old provision offered in the City to their constituents.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board:

1)  Note the content of the briefing note

2)  Write to the Cabinet Member (Education and Skills) to encourage the sharing of good practice on readiness for school between schools, early years settings and private providers

3)  Write to Department for Education to request that there is adequate funding to ensure schools buildings were ventilated effectively without leaving pupils and staff cold which will affect their learning