Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Children and Education Services

The Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Board (2) received a briefing note and presentation of the Director of Children’s Services and Education that provided an update on Coventry’s education performance for 2025 that included the following:

·  Trends in pupilnumbers

·  Early Years FoundationStage (EYFS)

·  Phonics

·  Key Stage (KS) 2

·  Key Stage (KS) 4(provisional)

·  16-19 attainment (provisional)

·  Post-16 participation in education, employment or training

·  Attendanceand exclusions

·  Differencein performancebetween malesand females

·  Performanceof vulnerablegroups

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Helen Nelson, Chair of Primary Partnership and Headteacher at Joseph Cash Primary School, and Ana Neofitou, Vice Chair of Secondary Partnership, attended the meeting for this item of business.

Data was set out in an Appendix to the Briefing Note and published data available through government sources was also included. The DfE released updated performance tables data each year, which meant there could be slight difference in previous years figures. For operational and planning purposes the Local Authority (LA) also use NCER Nexus and FFT Aspire, which were used as management information by most Local Authorities. This enabled further in-depth analysis but was not quoted as not published and regional and national comparisons might not represent the total cohort. Further Appendices to the report provided: comparative groups and A levels points; Coventry Education Partnership priorities 2024-25; and a glossary of terms.

The vision of the Coventry Education Partnership encompassed high expectations for the achievement of children and young people to achieve their full potential whatever their culture or background. Statutorily it was the responsibility of school leaders to secure improvement in their school, but as part of the working partnership with all schools and settings, the LA acted as champions of educational excellence, forging strong professional relationships and networks. The LA, in partnership with the primary school networks and secondary collaboratives (including special schools), facilitated and supported schools in the city on their improvement journey.

Overall, Coventry’s performance compared favourably with statistical neighbours for some measures – these statistical neighbours were directly comparable to Coventry because of similarities in size and other important characteristics. For many (but not all) of the key performance measures, Coventry was below national average, and this reflected the characteristics of the city in comparison to all local authorities nationally. However, national averages remained the target, and all Coventry schools continued to strive to meet or exceed national benchmarks.

In considering the briefing note and the presentation by officers, the Board discussed issues, asked questions and received responses from officers and the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills on matters including:

·  The growing numbers of children in the city that had been accommodated in schools through the implementation of a total of 11 bulge classes, creating 1500 additional places. Some children had also been placed under the Fair Access Protocol

·  In-year admissions funding - schools were funded based on the school census and a growth fund was available to support bulge classes

·  Exclusions - there was a good working relationship with Head Teachers that all possible options be explored to avoid this course of action. A lot of work had been undertaken around belonging, what support could be given for their individual needs, and what alternative provision could be offered where appropriate

·  Recognition that some children had unmet longstanding needs from Primary that carried through to secondary.

·  Family First Partnerships Programme provided early intervention to support to parents’ engagement in the education process

·  Generational change important going forward to support attendance at school

·  Building relationships with families helped to identify the support required. A multi-agency approach was applied to the multifaceted situations of some families, this included issues such as deprivation, domestic abuse, and mental health

·  Coventry continued to demonstrate strong post 16 participation, with its September guarantee performance remaining consistently above both national and regional figures

·  Despite the slight rise in the combined NEET and Not Known rate in 2025, Coventry performed better than England and the West Midlands reflecting sustained success in supporting young people to remain in education, employment or training.

·  Coventry mirrored the national trend on suspension figures. Suspensions, which could be for a number of hours, days or weeks, could arise from: unmet needs played out through behaviour; family issues; social media influences; and mental health issues

·  The effects of austerity and Covid could not be underestimated - children away from the learning environment with no interaction and socialisation with others, had resulted in a number of challenges. The direct and indirect effects of Covid, which did not affect all children equally, were not yet known as the children were still progressing through school stages

·  There had been an improvement in children achieving a good level of development on school readiness, however there were still children not school ready particularly in the Reception year where children were not toilet trained. Children in Reception now had been born during Covid so parents had not had the usual access to support. Work was continuing to engage parents

·  There was a strong focus on school attendance, measured against the national average, with work undertaken if figures were not met. Good practice was offered between schools with a collective responsibility for attendance between schools and families

·  Work was continuing on transport issues that has affected attendance at Special Schools to ensure a sustained service provision

RESOLVED that the Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Board (2):

1)  Noted the information provided

2)  Had no further recommendations to make to the Cabinet Member

3)  Had no further areasfor further scrutinyto beadded tothe Work Programme