| 1 | % children taking up the Statutory entitlement to early education for all eligible 2 year olds | Percentage | 90 | 85 | 90 | Jan 2024 | Termly | Green | Green | Up to date | In reality there was 1 more child in a place in the spring term. Such impressive levels of take up were consistently better than the National Average of 74%. | |
| 2 | % getting their first choice of primary school | Percentage | 98.2 | 95 | 98.2 | Apr 2023 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | Almost all applicants got their first choice of primary school for the academic year starting in September 2023. This is a slight improvement on the previous year and continues to be significantly better than the national average of 92.5%. | |
| 3 | EYFSP - % of pupils achieving a Good Level of Development | Percentage | 68.8 | 69 | 68.8 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Amber | Up to date | The figure of 68.8% is an improvement on the previous year of 1.3%. It is 1.5% better than the national average, and is just 0.2% short of the target NCC set. | |
| 4 | % gap between FSM eligible learners and non FSM eligible learners achieving a 'Good Level of Development' at end of EYFS | Percentage | 23 | 25 | 23 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | 4% improvement on the previous school year and better than target, but higher and therefore poorer than the national average of 19.9% | Not Available |
| 5 | Phonics - % of year 1 pupils working at the expected standard | Percentage | 80.7 | 80 | 80.7 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | The outcomes for year 1 pupils were 2% better than the previous year and 1.7% better than the latest national average. | |
| 6 | % KS1 - % of pupils achieving the expected standard in Reading, Writing & Math | Percentage | 56.2 | 57 | 56.2 | Aug 2022 | Annually | Green | Amber | Up to date | This is a 2% improvement on the previous year and just below the target of 57%, hence the amber rating. | |
| 7 | KS2 - % of pupils achieving the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths | Percentage | 57.8 | 59 | 57.8 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Amber | Up to date | 58% of Northumberland pupils achieved the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths, an increase on 2022 but 1.8% below the national average. Reading was 0.1% above the national average at 72.9%, writing was 0.4% above the national average at 71.9% and Maths was 2.1% below the national average at 70.9%. | |
| 8 | Number of permanent exclusions from primary schools in academic year | Number | 6 | 0 | 7 | Apr 2024 | Monthly | Red | Red | Up to date | | |
| 9 | % pupils in primary schools judged by Ofsted as good/outstanding | Percentage | 95.6 | 91 | 95.6 | Jan 2024 | Quarterly | Green | Green | Up to date | 3 academies have moved from Good to Requires improvement. The Local Authority have no school improvement input into 2 of these schools. The third has been hampered by three headteachers in the last two years. The latest figure of 95.6% remains significantly better than the national average of 90%. | |
| 10 | % getting their first choice secondary school | Percentage | 95.5 | 95 | 95.5 | Apr 2023 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | The vast majority of applicants got their first choice of secondary school for the academic year starting in September 2023. The figure of 95.5% is a 2% decrease on the previous year, but continues to be significantly better than the national average of 82.6%. There was a bigger cohort of pupils in 2023 meaning there were fewer places to offer in parental preference schools. | |
| 11 | KS4 - average Attainment 8 score | Number | 44.4 | 49 | 44.4 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Red | Up to date | External examinations returned for the second time since 2019. Nationally, it was determined that grades would, overall, fall back to 2019 levels, so a fall in the percentages in comparison to 2022 was expected. Northumberland achieved 44.4, slightly below what was achieved in 2019, and below the national average of 46.2.
ACTIONS: The School Improvement team will continue to work with the 4 (soon to be 3) remaining LA maintained secondary/high schools, and academies if they request our services. We will also continue to press academy CEOs and/or the relevant Dioceses around improving performance at Key Stage 4. | |
| 12 | % gap between disadvantaged and non disadvantaged learners' average attainment 8 score at the end of KS4 | Percentage | 16.6 | 17 | 16.6 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | A 1% improvement on the previous academic year and below and therefore better than the national average of 18.1%. | Not Available |
| 13 | KS4 - average Progress 8 score | Number | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Red | Up to date | External examinations returned for the second time since 2019. Nationally, it was determined that grades would, overall, fall back to 2019 levels, so a fall in the percentages in comparison to 2022 was expected. The score of -0.20 is poorer than the national average of -0.03, but better than the regional average of -0.27.
ACTIONS: The School Improvement team will continue to work with the 4 (soon to be 3) remaining LA maintained secondary/high schools, and academies if they request our services. We will also continue to press academy CEOs and/or the relevant Dioceses around improving performance at Key Stage 4. | |
| 14 | Number of permanent exclusions from secondary schools in academic year | Number | 89 | 57 | 96 | Apr 2024 | Monthly | Red | Red | Up to date | | |
| 15 | % permanently excluded pupils receiving full-time education by 6th day following exclusion | Percentage | 57.7 | 75 | 55.3 | Apr 2024 | Monthly | Red | Red | Up to date | | |
| 16 | % pupils in secondary schools judged by Ofsted as good/outstanding | Percentage | 83.6 | 82 | 83.6 | Jan 2024 | Quarterly | Green | Green | Up to date | All secondary schools that have been inspected this year have retained their previous grading. | |
| 17 | Overall absence rate | Percentage | 7.3 | 7.5 | 7.3 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | Improvement in 2022-23 school year and just better than the national average of 7.4%. Figures are provisional pending release of official data for the 2022-23 school year in March. | Not Available |
| 18 | Persistent absence rate from school | Percentage | 19.9 | 26.4 | 19.9 | Sep 2022 | Annually | Green | Green | Up to date | Improvement in 2022-23 school year and better than the national average of 21.2%, but the figures are still too high, especially for those who are in the Severely absent cohort (missing more than 50% of school sessions). | Not Available |
| 19 | % of 16-17 year olds NEET and Not Known | Percentage | 6.3 | 5.1 | 6.3 | Jan 2024 | Quarterly | Green | Red | Up to date | The quarter 4 figure of 6.3% (5.0% NEET and 1.2% unknown due to rounding) is a decline compared to the same period the previous year (4.9%). The national figure is 5.1% (of which NEET 3.4% and Unknown 1.7%). Staffing challenges have meant there has been less calling and texting of NEET young people; there is now capacity within the team to contact more young people.
ACTIONS: Weekly progress review meetings with careers assistants have been implemented that monitor the level of contact with NEET young people and provide better visibility/tracking of journeys and outcomes. A newly appointed Preparing for Adulthood lead began in April and will work to develop and maintain increasingly effective methods for developing and monitoring quantity and quality of pathways post-16. Replacement of the current Cognisoft Database IO system with Capita One Integrated Youth Support Service (IYSS) will provide a more intuitive case management platform, greater data and analytics, and bring together other Capita managed data to enhance interventions and outcomes – this work is advancing at pace between Capita and NCC colleagues with LIVE Migration planned for 2nd August 2024 | |
| 20 | % of new Education Health and Care Plans successfully completed within statutory 20 week time scale (monthly figures) | Percentage | 34 | 70 | 34 | Jan 2024 | Monthly | Green | Red | Overdue | The figure of 34% is for January, February and March combined. This is an increase on the previous quarterly figure of 29% and 36% prior to that. It reflects significant pressures on the Education Psychology (EP) and SEND teams due to high demand and reduced or static workforce numbers. The national average was 49.2% for EHCPs issued in 2022 – this is expected to be lower for 2023 (June 2024 release date). EHCP caseworkers have almost double the caseload that they held in 2020. There were 256 requests for an Education, Health and Care needs assessment in Autumn 2023, an increase of more than 100 compared with Autumn 2022.
ACTIONS: There is an ongoing recruitment drive, increased recruitment of assistant educational psychologists, development of locum pool and continued review of internal processes within EP and SEND team. The service undertook value for money assessment with Deloitte partners in Spring, with effective practice but insufficient capacity being the overall outcome. EHCP officers hold almost 500 EHCPs in their caseload, compared with approximately 280 in 2022. Digitalisation of process, in line with SEND and AP improvement plan, is being explored internally. | |