Dave Hollomby, School Improvement Officer, Children & Young People’s Department provided members with a presentation regarding interventions to close the gap.

Using 2012 data, at Key Stage 2, for every two non-free school meal children who attained Level 4b or above in reading and maths and Level 4+ in writing there was one non-free school meal child who did not. The corresponding figure for free school meal children was for every two who did achieve the levels, three did not.

At the end of Key Stage 4, for every two non-free school meal children who attained at 5+ A*-C GCSEs (including English and maths) there was still just one non-free school meal child who did not. The corresponding figure for free school meal children was for every two who did achieve the levels, five did not. Therefore, the failure rate of free school meal pupils had increased.

At A level, for every two non-free school meal children who attained at 3+ A*-A grades there were 28 non-free school meal child who did not. The corresponding figure for free school meal children was for every two who did achieve the levels, 560 did not. It was virtually unheard of for free school meal students to achieve the grades necessary to compete for the most selective universities and professions.

It was reported that there was an attainment gap at every stage in the education system which got wider, not narrower, as children progressed through their schooling. Wirral’s gap at age 16 remained a particular concern, standing at the fourth widest in England in 2014. Academic research showed that the following interventions had the biggest impact on narrowing the gap:

·  One-to-one and small group tutoring (ideally by teachers)

·  Peer-tutoring

·  Quality feedback to students by teachers. Durham University had recently published research to demonstrate this.

However, there was also some indication that target-setting for children may also have an impact on attainment levels. All schools and teachers believed they had high expectations of children although it was almost universal to set lower targets for children who did less well at primary school. As disadvantaged children tended to do less well at primary, there was therefore a gap in targets for disadvantaged children. If disadvantaged children had lower targets (on average) than other children then they were less likely to be identified as underachieving against these targets than if they had higher targets. As a result, the disadvantaged children may not be receiving the level of intervention expected.

In Wirral, the RADY project (Raising the Attainment of Disadvantaged Youngsters) had been established as a pilot project to check this theory. Three secondary schools joined the pilot and agreed to set targets for Year 7 disadvantaged children that were, on average, equal to those that were set for other children. Initial results from the pilot were promising. However, the pilot is small and further evidence was required. Discussions were being held with Fischer Family Trust (FFT) and other Local Authorities to widen the pilot.

It was suggested that the future work programme for the Sub-Committee could include visits to those schools with the widest gap in attainment as well as schools which had been more successful in narrowing the gap between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and others.

Resolved – That;

1.  Dave Hollomby be thanked for the presentation;

2.  the report be noted;

3.  visits to those schools with the widest gap in attainment as well as schools which had been more successful in narrowing the gap between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and others be considered for inclusion on the work programme for the new municipal year.