Raising Education Standards and Attainment

Across the Northern Powerhouse

Sarah Lewis and Jane Balderstone

Department for Education

Why the North?

Why the North?

% of children achieving a 'good level of development' at the end of Early Years

Foundation Stage (2015/16) in the North is 67% which is lower than the England

average of 69%. (For FSM children this is 52% compared to the England average of

54%)

30% of secondary schools are rated as inadequate or requires improvement by

Ofsted compared to 21% nationally (as at 31 December 2016)

% of all pupils achieving the expected standard at KS2 in Reading Writing and

Mathematics (2016) is 53% which is lower than the England average of 54%

38% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the expected standard at KS2 in Reading

Writing and Mathematics in 2016 compared to 39% nationally.

The average attainment 8 result of disadvantaged pupils is 1.3 points lower than the

national average and their progress 8 score is 0.11 points lower.

40% of disadvantaged pupils at the end of KS4 achieved A*-C grades in English and

Maths GCSEs compared to 43% nationally.

35% of disadvantaged pupils at the end of KS4 achieved 5+ A*-C grades incl. English

& mathematics GCSEs, 2015 compared to 37% nationally.

Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy Report

Remit:

Analysis of data on underperformance in the north

and possible underlying factors including

o Comparison with other areas and of successful

approaches that could be applied in the north.

o Recommendations for how the current set of

reforms can best address underperformance and

specific suggestions for how government and

school leaders in the area can tackle the

problem.

Focus on areas where standards and capacity to

improve is lowest rather than the whole of the

Northern Powerhouse regions.

Announced in March

2016 Budget.

£20m a year of new

funding for 31/2 years

Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy ReportBuilding teaching and leadership capacity

DfE should pilot a new ‘Teach North’ scheme to attract and retain talented newly-

qualified teachers in disadvantaged schools in the North.

School Improvement Capacity

DfE should assign funding to MAT CEOs from northern ‘cold spot’ areas to attend

MAT CEO training.

DfE should assign funding to a mentoring scheme whereby successful MAT CEOs

from across the country mentor CEOs of new or expanding MATs in the North,

offering support on effective school improvement models, data analysis, financial

management and growth planning.

Raising standards by closing the disadvantaged gap

DfE should commission research into the early years gap in the North as well as

effective practice for closing it.

DfE should identify the schools that are most effective at closing the gap in

Reception classes and support them to disseminate best practice to schools in the

North.

Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy Report

Curriculum

DfE should work with the EEF Research Schools to further develop the EEF’s

focus within northern schools, to identify and evaluate effective programmes and

practice with children who do not meet age-related expectation or who are not

secondary-ready.

Government response

We will design, fund and test a range of approaches (such as effective professional

development) to attracting and retaining high-quality teachers in the North,

including in Opportunity Areas. This will help us to understand what works, and

support schools to build and share evidence more widely.

We also agree that building MAT capacity is fundamental to driving up standards.

We will invest in developing strong multi-academy trusts and sponsors to improve

schools and grow capacity in the North, including in Opportunity Areas.

We will look to engage the regions and the sector to work up plans in these areas.

Teacher recruitment and retention in the North

Since November, we have been undertaking extensive

stakeholder engagement activities with schools, LAs, ITT

providers etc. to understand the issues

The first phase of this engagement has resulted in a series of

key themes.

o Most schools reported facing teacher supply challenges

(especially in maths, physics and geography).

o Ofsted rating and the perception of a school or areas affects

teacher supply.

o Workload is a significant factor in worsening teacher retention.

o An effective career progression and CPD offer can help

Second phase to work with schools to detail the pilot activity

Funding to boost schools facing difficulties – through tangible

actions like supporting workforce planning, funding better CPD,

and tackling workload issues to improve retention

Further detail in the Spring.

Northern Powerhouse

funding to pilot

new approaches to

attracting and

retaining teachers in

the North of England.

Opportunity Areas

Six areas were

announced 4

October 2016:

Blackpool

Scarborough

Oldham

Derby

Norwich

West Somerset

A further six areas

were announced 18

January 2017

Doncaster

Bradford

Stoke-on-Trent

Ipswich

Hastings

Fenland and East

Cambridgeshire

‘Social mobility is the breaking of the link between a child’s family background and

where they get to in life, with their background and destination often measured by

social class (which usually looks at their profession) or by income.’

What will Opportunity Areas get?

£72 million of new funding to support targeted, local work in a small number of

Opportunity Areas to address the biggest challenges each of these areas face. (e.g. circa

£6m per OA. Included within this contribution to evaluation and funding for local delivery

support)

An innovation fund to improve teaching and leadership, worth £75 million, for the

most challenging areas of the country, including Opportunity Areas. Call for proposals is

now live and we are prioritising OA as part of this.

Investing in improving careers and enterprise provision in Opportunity Areas

through the Careers and Enterprise Company. Each secondary school will have a

dedicated enterprise advisor, leading to at least four different work experiences.

The National Collaborative Outreach Programme – aiming to increase the number of

disadvantaged young people in Higher Education by 2020. (HEPP SY)

Regional Academy Growth Fund, with funding prioritised for the Opportunity Areas.

Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Research Schools – £3.5m available to

establish hubs of expertise across schools, encouraging research and innovation through

interventions proven by the EEF to advance social mobility

How will Opportunity Areas work?

Each Partnership Board will work with the DfE Head of Delivery in assessing

key actions needed in Opportunity Areas to improve social mobility, bringing

local and regional intelligence and experience to bear in the process.

o Problem diagnosis and prioritising the problems to focus on in the Opportunity

Area.

o Specific local success measures for the Opportunity Area Delivery Plan.

o Interventions in response to the problems – the Delivery Plan.

o Monitoring and revising the Delivery Plan as necessary.

o The allocation of Opportunity Area funding.

The final delivery plans for each Opportunity Area will be signed off by the

DfE Secretary of State.

What do we want to achieve in Opportunity Areas?

More children to start school ready to learn

More children to attend great schools

More children to be on course to get the grades they need to succeed

later in life

More young people to have engagement with business and careers

advice

More young people to enjoy high quality and vocational routes post-16,

with clear career paths

More young people to go to University

To have improved the evidence base for what works in achieving social

mobility

To have built the foundations for breaking the link between circumstances

of birth and where you end up in later life.

Regional Schools Commissioners

Led by National Schools Commissioner,

Sir David Carter, Regional Schools

Commissioners (RSCs) are responsible

for delivering the academies programme;

converting schools, developing sponsors

and new schools, and monitoring

standards in underperforming schools.

Supported by their Headteacher Boards,

RSCs bring decision making closer to

schools by adding greater local/regional

knowledge. This helps develop school

autonomy and gives the best leaders

greater influence over the direction of the

academies programme.

Regional Schools Commissioners …

Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are responsible for making

decisions about the academies and free schools in their region on

behalf of the Secretary of State for Education.

Their main responsibilities are to:

• Monitor the performance of the academies in their area and take

necessary action when an academy is underperforming.

• Approve changes to open academies, including:

o changes to age ranges,

o mergers between academies,

o changes to multi-academy trust arrangements.

• Decide on the creation of new academies.

• Encourage organisations to become academy sponsors.

• Make recommendations to ministers about free school applications.

Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Education Statement to ESC September 2016: video link here

“I do want to see all schools, over time, become academies.

But I think our focus has to be on the schools that are

struggling and not doing well enough for our children at the

moment.

Our hope and expectation is that all schools will want to steadily

take advantage of the benefits that academies can bring.

But our focus will be on those schools where we feel that standards

need to be raised and they need to do a better job on delivering

attainment and progress for children “

Vision of the academy system

School-to-school support and collaboration: redefine the concept of

school as a group of schools (Federation or MAT)

Self-managing, self-improving system – including at trust/sponsor level:

the importance of MATs, governance and RSCs as well as TSAs

Goal: More children achieving much more, regardless of starting point

Schools that work for everyone

16

Strategic alignment of strong school

networks, developing collective

accountability & responsibility is key.

Vicky Beer CBE

RSC Lancashire & West Yorkshire

The era of the stand-alone school is coming to a close.

Collaboration is going to be the key to system wide school improvement.

Sir David CarterNational Schools’ Commissioner

2017 and beyond …

A Multi-Academy School-Led System

National

Established

Starter

System

5 – 6 academies,

single region

5 – 15 academies, cross LA/region

15 – 30 academies,

across three or more regions

30 + academies,

multi-regional

Benefits of MATS

Trust wide sharing of curriculum &

assessment resources

Workload reduction as less

‘reinventing’ of the wheel

Strong non educational support

unleashes capacity of teachers and

leaders

Financial sustainability & economies of

scale

Retaining talent in the trust even if not

in the original school

Governance at the school level

focuses on three areas: Experience of

children, staff and parents

Local Academy Boards are therefore vital

Collective Responsibility for more

children than can be taught in one

school

Use the talent pool to intervene in

under performance more quickly

Collective ‘brain’ of leaders

Trust wide CPD

Moderation and assessment

between staff who share the

accountability for outcomes in the

same trust

Enrichment offer for children can be

broader

Clear evidence that MATS are

finding it easier to recruit staff

Characteristics of Successful MATs

19

Ofsted found that these stronger trusts tended to share a

set of common characteristics, including:

an ability to recruit and retain powerful and

authoritative executive leaders, with a clear vision

for bringing about higher standards

a well-planned, broad and balanced curriculum that

equips pupils with a strong command of the basics

of English and mathematics, as well as the

confidence, ambition and team-work skills to

succeed in later life

a commitment to provide a high-quality education

for all pupils, in a calm and scholarly atmosphere

investment in professional development of teachers

and the sharing of knowledge and expertise across

a strong network of constituent schools

a high priority given to initial teacher training and

leadership development to secure a pipeline of

future talent

clear frameworks of governance, accountability and

delegation

effective use of assessment information to identify,

escalate and tackle problems quickly

a cautious and considered approach to expansion

Intelligent Design : Intelligent Collaboration

The majority of the new MATS being set up are made up of local schools

working together with similar values

Leaders working together to improve education for whole communities not

just single schools

Growing the system with care & improving it strategically

Move debate away from academies v maintained schools to designing one

dynamic school system

More accountability driven governance structures that are built around a

wider range of professional skillsets

RSC only intervening when standards are not good enough.

20

Intervention as a 6 stage process?

Stage 1 Analysis

• What does data and other intelligence

tell us?

• Can we draw the right conclusions

from this?

Stage 2 Diagnosis

• What are the deep seated issues that

require intervention?

Stage 3 Commissioning

• Who are we going to invite to do the

work?

• Who will lead the due diligence on the

system leaders?

• Who will ensure that the school being

supported understands what is being

commissioned?

Stage 4 System Delivery

Have we got system leaders that can

deliver the improvement that the

diagnosis suggests we need?

How do we know they can deliver what

is needed? Evidence of track record?

Stage 5 Accountability

• Who are we holding to account? What

do we do if the support is ineffective?

• The delivery team & The school being

supported are accountable

• Discontinue the work of the system

leader

• Further intervention with the school that

resists support

Stage 6 Sustainability

• Can the school continue to improve on

its own or not?

For more information

Contact us by email

Opportunity Areas: opportunity.areas@education/gov.uk

Northern Powerhouse Review: northern.review@education.gov.uk

RSC North: RSC.NORTH@education.gov.uk

RSC East Midlands and Humber: EMH.RSC@education.gov.uk

RSC Lancashire and West Yorks: LWY.RSC@education.gov.uk

Visit the websites

www.gov.uk/government/news/education-secretary-announces-6-new-

opportunity-areas

www.gov.uk/government/publications/northern-powerhouse-schools-

strategy-an-independent-review

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group