Memorandum submitted by Slough Borough
Council (SA 39) (continued)
None of the places in Slough schools are residential/boarding.
The proposed PFI project is considering providing some residential
places for pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
Educated Otherwise
Educated outside mainstream schooling
THE NUMBER OF PUPILS EDUCATED OUTSIDE SCHOOLS
IN MAY 2003 BY REASON AND PROVISION
|
| School Refuser
| Emotional and Mental Health
| Pregnant | Exceptionally at Risk
| Dual Roll | Total
|
|
| Step Out | |
| | 10 |
| 10 |
| At Home | 5 |
| 1 |
| | 6
|
| Wexham Park PRU—Hospital Schoolroom |
| 8 |
| | | 8
|
| Looked After Children's Service |
| | | | 33
| 33* |
|
* Two pupils are included in the establishments listed below.
Education that is provided by parents is monitored and supported
by the Education Welfare Service and School Improvement Team.
Northbrook (including Haymill) Pupil Referral Unit, which
covers Key Stages 1-4, had 89 pupils in attendance in January
2003. 61 pupils were on the unit register only, 23 were dually
registered at another school and five pupils also attended a FE
college or were with a voluntary provider.
Activate which provides for pupils with a wide variety of
needs had 21 pupils in attendance in January 2003. Activate is
a work based training scheme, offering an alternative to mainstream
schooling providing work related learning. The scheme, which started
in September 2001, is based at Sara Lee and is run by the council
in partnership with East Berkshire College and the Slough Business
Community Partnership. The centre offers a work-related curriculum
to young people who have often become disenchanted with school,
which can lead to poor behaviour and attendance. Trainees are
helped to secure work placements as well as working towards vocational
qualifications.
Vulnerable pupils
Slough currently has £250,000 available through a standards
fund grant for Vulnerable pupils to support key groups, these
include: looked after children; Gypsy Travellers; Asylum Seekers;
young carers; school refusers; teenage parents; and young offenders.
The purpose is to develop a strategic approach within the
LEA to support vulnerable school age children and improve access
to education, attendance, inclusion and standards.
Excluded pupils
Slough's target is to become the first authority in the country
with zero permanent exclusions. The authority fulfils its responsibility
to offer full-time provision for all pupils excluded for more
than 15 days.
Successful steps have been taken, supported by funding through
the Behaviour Improvement Programme, to increase the capacity
of mainstream schools to support children and reduce fixed term
exclusions.
8. ADMISSIONS FORUM
The Education (Admissions Forums) (England) Regulations 2002
came into force on 20 January 2003 and require all Local Education
Authorities to establish an Admissions Forum to consider admissions
within their areas. Slough LEA had already established an Admissions
Forum on a voluntary basis in May 2002.
The key role of the Admissions Forum is to:
— Consider how well existing and proposed admission
arrangements serve the interests of children and parents within
the area of the authority.
— Promote agreement on admission issues across the
various admission authorities.
— Consider how information can be provided for parents
and review documentation.
— Monitor the admission of children who arrive in
the authority's area outside the normal admission round, with
a view to promoting arrangements for the fair distribution of
children among local schools.
— Review the admission arrangements for children
with special educational needs, looked after children, and children
who have been excluded from school.
— Consider any other admission-related issues that
may arise.
Although the Forum has previously considered some of the
issues referred to above, the scope of the Forum has been widened
by the new regulations and a range of issues will be considered
by the Forum at future meetings.
The Forum consists of a group of core members including representatives
of the LEA and Dioceses and representatives of community and voluntary
controlled schools, voluntary aided schools and foundation schools.
The Forum also includes at least one parent governor representative
and may include not more than three persons who appear to the
authority to represent the interests of any section of the local
community. Any adjustments to the membership, to comply with the
new regulations, will be made during the summer term 2003 and
considered by the Council.
Until recently the Forum has met only occasionally, normally
to consider the LEA's admission arrangements for the forthcoming
school year. The new regulations require that a Forum must meet
at least three times during its first year and at least twice
yearly thereafter. The Forum continues to be an advisory body
only and may only submit advice and recommendations to Admission
Authorities.
Under the Education Act 2002 a new Code of Practice for Admission
has been published this requires authorities to have fully co-ordinated
admission schemes in place for the 2005-06 school year.
In March 2003 the Admissions Forum consulted on published
admission numbers for September 2004. The Education Act 2002 repealed
the requirement for schools to have standard numbers. These are
to be replaced by published admission numbers (PAN) in 2004-05,
based on net capacity indicated admission numbers (IAN).
9. PERFORMANCE DATA
(2002-03)
Key Stage 1
— Results of KS1, in reading, are above the national
figure at Level 2+ (Slough 86% : National 84%)
— Reading results at Level 3 are two percentage
points below the national figure (Slough 26% : National 28%)
— In writing, the results are four percentage points
above the national figure at Level 2 + (Slough 85% : National
81%) and at Level 3 they are six percentage points above (Slough
22% : National 16%)
— There is a consistent pattern of achievement above
the national level at Level 2. Achievement at Level 3 is below
the national figure in reading but significantly above in writing.
— In mathematics. Slough Schools match the national
context at Level 2+ (90%). Achievement at Level 3 is two percentage
points below the national figure (Slough 27% : National 29%)
Key Stage 2
— Results in English in 2003 at KS2 are in line
with the national results at Level 4 and Level 5. There has been
a two percentage point increase in Slough's results since 2002
at Level 4 and a three percentage point increase at Level 5. Within
this there is a significant improvement in reading of two percentage
points at Level 4 and nine percentage points at Level 5.
— Performance at Level 4 in mathematics is four
percentage points below the national figure.
Key Stage 3
— KS3 results show an upward trend, with substantial
gains in mathematics and Science. In particular, there is significant
improvement at Level 6+.
Key Stage 4
— Slough compares very favourably with its statistical
neighbours. The range at GCSE 5 A*-C is between 38.6% and 54.0%,
with Slough achieving 54.0% against a national figure of 52.6%
and a SE Regional figure of 54.8%
10. ADMISSIONS APPEALS
— There are approximately 15-20 appeals per month.
— This figure increases dramatically in June to
over 90 appeals.
— An approximate total number of appeals heard per
year is 300. This figure has risen particularly over the last
two year period.
— The ethnic background of appeals hearings (for
2002) is:
|
| Pakistani | 41% |
| UK (European) | 25% |
| Indian | 19% |
| Black/African | 5% |
| Other European | 4% |
| Mixed Ethnic Origin | 5% |
|
— Of the approximate 300 appeals heard per year
up to 25% (or 75 appeals) require interpreter support.
— Broad costs of interpreter support (at £40
per session) is £3,000.
— Up to four hours of officer time is used per appeal
(equal to 1,200 hours per annum or ca 170 office days).
11. NFER—THE IMPACT
OF THE
STRUCTURE OF
SECONDARY EDUCATION
IN SLOUGH,
NOVEMBER 2001 (PARA
1010-1015)
"Because Slough Borough Council (SBC) covers a small
geographical area, a high proportion of its population lives close
to its borders; this means that it is relatively easy for Slough
children to attend schools outside the borough, and for non-Slough
children to attend SBC schools. It is therefore relevant to consider
the education systems of neighbouring authorities, in particular
Buckinghamshire and Windsor and Maidenhead. Bucks also has a selective
system and one of its grammar schools (Burnham) is only just outside
the Slough Border; in fact for some pupils in primary schools,
it is the nearest grammar school. This means that some Slough
children take the Bucks selection test either instead of, or as
well as, the Slough test.
Windsor and Maidenhead, like Slough, is a new LEA, a unitary
authority created by the abolition of Berkshire County Council.
Although, like Slough it covers a small geographical area, it
includes different systems of education. Both towns are comprehensive,
but in Maidenhead the age of transfer to secondary education is
11 while in Windsor there are many middle schools catering for
pupils age nine to 13. There is also, however, one secondary school
(Churchmead, at Datchet) which under Berkshire was the designated
non-selective school for some Slough pupils; it is now part of
Windsor and Maidenhead, but although closer to Windsor than Maidenhead,
it takes pupils at age 11, including large numbers from Slough.
The result is that, in theory at least, Slough parents can
choose from a range of types of schooling. They can enter their
children for the Slough and/or the Bucks 11-plus test, in the
hope of securing a grammar school place; if they are opposed to
selection (or if their child fails the test), they can apply for
admission to a comprehensive school in Windsor and Maidenhead.
In practice, however, the choice for the majority of parents is
likely to be limited. Their child may not succeed in gaining admission
to a grammar school, and they may not have the resources to pay
for travel to a school outside the borough.
The other side of the equation is that the Slough grammar
schools attract applications from a large number of families who
live outside the borough. Hence in 1998, 40% of the Year 7 pupils
in Slough grammar schools came from outside Slough. It is not
perhaps surprising that this fact is resented by local people
who feel that grammar school places which would otherwise have
been available for Slough children are given to outsiders instead.
There are also differences in admission to grammar school
in terms of the ethnicity and socio-economic status of the families
represented. According to SBC records, in 1999 17% of the white
children in Slough maintained primary schools transferred to grammar
school; the percentage of Pakistani pupils was lower (1%) and
that of Indian pupils much higher (29%). More than a quarter (26%)
of pupils in non-selective schools were eligible for free school
meals (FSM), compared with only 8% of those in grammar schools.
In this difficult situation SBC wishes to provide the fairest
and most effective system of education for pupils from all ethnic
communities in the town. As explained in section 1.1, it does
not have the power to abolish selection, even if this were considered
desirable. However, Slough has a responsibility to provide clear
unbiased evidence about the impact of selection on the borough's
children and schools. Moreover, an understanding of the impact
of selection should help Slough to operate effectively within
the present system".
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