Issue - meetings

(a)       That members receive the report and note the attainment of Flintshire pupils for the year 2011-12.

(b)       That members receive a future report on analysis of learner progress from entry assessment and successful strategies for securing improved learner progression.

            The Director of Lifelong Learning introduced the report which gave a summary of pupil attainment in statutory assessments across the primary and

secondary school phases for the school year 2011-12.

                           The following key points of the report were highlighted:

• Permanent exclusions were low.
• Progress was being made with fixed term exclusions
• Attendance in secondary schools still high
• Attendance for primary schools had improved over the last two years and is now amongst top performing counties.
• Pupil outcomes were above expectations at KS4
• Pupil outcomes were broadly in line with expectations at KS3.
• The number of primary schools causing concern in accordance with Flintshire criteria had decreased from 15 down to 11.

            The Secondary Schools Officer gave a detailed report on the secondary performance and was pleased to report that outcomes remained very good at KS4 in the main quality indicator which measured the proportion of learners who achieved 5 or more GCSE passes at A* to C including Maths, English/Welsh 1^st Language.

            The Chair thanked the members who had contributed to the work of the school monitoring group.

            Councillor P. Shotton thanked the officers for the thorough report.  He acknowledged the challenges faced in Foundation and Key Stage 2, particularly those from deprived areas and asked if any activities had been arranged for World Book Day on 7 March to promote literacy. The Director of Lifelong Learning said that children in the foundation stage should have the best possible start to their school career and that in the previous year, 100 of the most vulnerable families had received support from Families First and this was making a real difference in terms of attendance, attitudes to learning and behaviour.  He said that World Book Day would be celebrated in schools and in libraries.

            Councillor C. A. Thomas voiced concern at the apparent lack of boundaries within the Foundation Phase, how consistently the phase had been implemented and how pupils coped upon entry into the more structured Key Stage 2 in year 3.  She asked at which stage would early intervention be implemented, asked for more information about school attendance figures and asked if there were plans to assess and band primary schools. She asked about testing for ages 5-15 from September.  The Director of Lifelong Learning in response said that there had been a 0.3% downturn in primary attendance, partly attributable to schools that were kept open during a spell of bad weather.  This has been followed by two years of improved primary attendance with relative primary performance now in line or above expectations. He added that Flintshire had a good attendance management practices which involved the inclusion and welfare service and multi agency interventions where appropriate.  With regards to testing, assessments would be more rigorous, concentrating on literacy and numeracy.  In terms of banding for primaries, there would be performance profiles for primaries.  The Director of Lifelong Learning said that had there had been concerns about how Foundation Phase had been implemented in some schools. In these cases, there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52