Annex A
EVERY CHILD MATTERS AND SCHOOL STANDARDS
PRIORITY REVIEW—KEY FINDINGS
SUMMARY
The recent "Priority review" on the
Every Child Matters and School Standards found that:
— The Every Child Matters Programme
is on track and in some cases ahead, with enthusiasm engagements
from all partners.
— Many heads believe that in the future,
as ECM policies become more embedded in schools and local authorities,
this will have a direct positive impact on standards.
The message for the next phase of reform is
simple: "no school standards without Every Child Matters
and no ECM without school standards".
DETAIL
The priority review found that schools do not
see ECM as a discrete programme so they have never thought to
measure it as such. Good schools see individual aspects of ECM
policy as part and parcel of their ongoing work to improve standards.
At this stage it is difficult to discern in
the national statistics a visible acceleration in school standards
as a consequence of ECM. However, there is no performance data
suggesting ECM is distracting schools from the standards agenda:
— Ofsted analysis shows a very strong
correlation between inspection judgements about ECM and standards
and emerging inspection evidence shows the standards agenda has
not been adversely affected.
— Early stage data from Wave 1&2
Full Service Extended Schools shows improvements in attainment
in line with a control group: implementation is not adversely
affecting attainment for early adopters.
— The vast majority of heads we spoke
to thought that ECM has a role to play in improving standards.
They gave no reason to suspect that ECM has caused them to relax
their focus on attainment.
Schools:
— Saw ECM and standards as mutually
reinforcing.
— ECM is "national recognition
of what heads have been doing all their working lives".
— Most of the heads reported seeing
some impact of implementing ECM eg standards, behaviour, attendance,
reduced exclusion rates.
— An encouraging number of heads reported
improved multi-agency working as a result of the shared framework.
Local Authorities:
— At senior levels in LAs there was
clear understanding of the mutually reinforcing links between
ECM and standards: "every child's standards matter".
— Extended Schools programme is useful
to LAs in engaging schools across the ECM agenda.
Examples:
— 19 out of the 27 head teachers interviewed
reported seeing some impact of implementing ECM on standards or
intermediate outcomes, examples include:
— A secondary school in Southwark reported
that improving the health of students, dealing with issues that
arise at home and providing positive role models through wider
work with businesses and the community has already helped to raise
standards.
— A primary school in Sunderland improved
attendance, partly as a result of work on family learning to help
parents realise the importance of learning and sending children
to school. They expected this improvement in attendance to lead
to improvements in standards.
— One secondary school had seen a dramatic
reduction in exclusions and a steady rise in results since adopting
an ECM approach three years ago. They have written pastoral elements
into all teacher's job descriptions, integrated ECM into the curriculum
and initiated multi agency meetings every half term.
— A secondary school in Lancashire reported
that clustering arrangements prompted by ECM was helping to reduce
exclusions.
— At local authority level, Telford
and Wrekin have successfully commissioned multi-agency teams to
provide geographical schools clusters with a swift and easy referral
service. Schools have reported that this approach releases energy
in schools to focus on raising standards.
Next steps
Following the priority review, the message for
the next phase of reform is simple: "no school standards
without Every Child Matters and no ECM without school standards".
To underpin this, the priorities should be to:
— Increase the focus on helping schools
not just improve classroom teaching and learning, but also creating
"personalised strategies" for children who are not yet
achieving expected standards. Schools should focus on the needs
of the bottom quartile of children at KS2 and KS3—those
who are not achieving good standards. To make this work, a data
driven approach needs to be embedded in schools and this should
increasingly drive both the ECM and standards work at school level.
— Clarify for schools what is expected
of them in "delivering standards and ECM". We are at
the threshold of a major drive on extended schools, as we move
from a successful roll out among early adopters with over 3,300
schools covered towards the target for all schools to have an
extended offer by 2010. The approach in this roll out phase must
be consistent with schools as self-governing units with their
own clear accountabilities, but it must also chart a path to better
access to services in the local community. The core message for
schools is that they must provide a safe environment for all their
children and should then focus on achievement. But also consider
their wider role to play in contributing to other outcomes for
children. The wider role will vary according to local circumstances
and the needs of their pupils.
— Vigorously pursue the outcomes from
ECM and clarify the importance of continuing to press on standards
while integrating and expanding children's services. PSA targets
need to be focused upon and a systematic return on the reform
programme is needed in terms of better standards and outcomes.
The Education Bill also sets out clear responsibilities—and
new powers—for local authorities to intervene quickly where
standards are not good enough to develop choice and diversity
in the system.
— Establish a strong performance focus
which quickly identifies emerging and effective practice as well
as any delivery issues/problems in ECM and standards. There should
be a real focus on standards in all parts of the delivery system
and make sure that our delivery chains are aligned. Arrangements
should be developed to share best practice and help local authorities
to learn from each other, as well as from expert consultants in
the field forces.
— Improve the connection of local and
national partners to the Every Child Matters agenda. LAs
are leading the way in building the effectiveness of collaboration
through Children's Trusts. It will also be important to improve
joint working within DfES and across Government, working with
other Departments, especially the Department of Health and Home
Office to continue to improve outcomes for children and young
people.
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