Summary
The Government is determined to close the gap between our highest and lowest attaining schools and has set ambitious targets at Key Stage 2, 3 & 4. Schools facing challenging circumstances (SFCC) may need more support than schools elsewhere to deliver equality of opportunity for their pupils and the DCSF has provided additional targeted support for these schools in order to raise attainment and tackle underperformance.
Current Targets
Key Stage 4
• 60% of 15 year old pupils to achieve five or more A*-C GCSEs or equivalent by 2008.
• In all schools at least 30% of 15 year old pupils to achieve five or more A* -C GCSEs by 2008.
Key Stage 3
• By 2007, 85% of 14 year olds to achieve at least Level 5 in English, mathematics and ICT, with 80% achieving Level 5 in science, with this level of performance sustained to 2008.
• By 2008, all schools to have at least 50% of pupils achieving Level 5 or above in English, mathematics and science.
Key Stage 2
• 85% of all 11 year olds to achieve Level 4 or above in English and mathematics by 2006, with this level of performance sustained to 2008.
• By 2008, reduce by 40% the proportion of schools where fewer than 65% of pupils achieve Level 4+ in English and fewer than 65% achieve Level 4+ in mathematics. The reduction will be measured against the 2003 figures.
Targets to 2011
Several new Public Service Agreements (PSAs) have been set with the aim of both raising the attainment of all children and narrowing the gap in educational achievement between children from lower income and disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers.
The targets to raise the attainment of all pupils include the following:
- The proportion of pupils achieving level 4 in both English and maths at Key Stage 2 should increase from 71% (2007) to 78% by 2011.
- The proportion of pupils achieving level 5 in both English and maths at Key Stage 3 should increase from 67% (2007) to 74% by 2011.
- The proportion of pupils achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs or equivalent including English and maths at Key Stage 4 should increase from 46.5% (2007) to 53% by 2011.
The targets to reduce the attainment gap include measures based on the proportion of pupils progressing by 2 National Curriculum levels in English and maths at each of Key Stages 2,3 & 4. They are:
- At Key Stage 2 the target is to increase by 9 percentage points in English and 11 percentage points in Maths from the 2006 figures of 80.9% and 73.3%.
- At Key Stage 3 the target is to increase by 16 percentage points in English and 12 percentage points in maths from the 2006 figures of 29.6% and 62.1%
- At Key Stage 4 the target is to increase by 15 percentage points in English and 13 percentage points in maths from the 2006 figures of 55.5% and 26.9%
Additional target to 2011
The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State, Ed Balls have announced that by 2011 all schools should have at least 30% of pupils achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and maths at the end of Key Stage 4.
The Government will set out its strategy for a National Challenge programme in May 2008. This will build on the lessons learnt from the London Challenge initiative where the capital was given an intensive focus on improvement with 60 per cent of pupils in maintained schools gaining five or more good GCSE passes – up ten percentage points over the last four years and by over 20 percentage points in the last decade.
Good Practice
In addition to providing tailored financial support to increase capacity within schools and local authorities, the DCSF’s School Improvement Team has developed many good practices for schools facing challenging circumstances. Working with partners we have produced guides for managing pupil performance and pupil mobility. In addition, training packages for subject leaders and middle managers have been developed and introduced successfully. We have also produced a number of case studies highlighting how individual schools have raised attainment whilst facing challenging circumstances. In conjunction with the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) we have developed a leadership programme for trainee headteachers in schools facing challenging circumstances.
Primary & Secondary National Strategies
The support that we provide to schools and local authorities complements the work of the Strategies and we work closely with their Senior Regional Directors. There are many Strategy programmes which may be suitable for schools facing challenging circumstances and those causing concern. For more details on the Strategies, please follow the links below to their web sites.
Results
Primary standards are at their highest ever levels. In 2007 80% of 11 year olds achieved level 4 or above in English and 77% did so in maths. In 1997 less than 2/3rds of 11 year olds reached this level in either subject. Substantial progress has been made to reduce the number of primary schools where fewer than 65% of pupils achieve level 4 or above. In 2003 (the baseline), 2,839 schools in English and 3,570 schools in maths did not achieve this target. By 2007, these figures had fallen to 1,484 schools in English (a reduction of 48%) and 2,026 schools in maths (a reduction of 43%).
Record numbers of 15 year olds are now achieving 5 good GCSEs or equivalent. 2007 figures show 60.8% achieved 5 A*-C grades which is an increase of 15.7 percentage points since 1997. 46% achieved 5 A*-C grades including English and maths (up 10.4 percentage points since 1997).
The number of schools with low GCSE level results has fallen dramatically. In 1997 there were 616 secondary schools where fewer than 25% of 15 year old pupils reached the 5 A*-C standard. In 2007 there were only 17. The number of schools where fewer than 30% of pupils reached this level has reduced from 896 to 64 during the same period.
The number of schools where less than 30% of 15 year old pupils achieve 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and maths has fallen from 1,610 in 1997 to 638 in 2007.
Downloads
What's good about leading schools in challenging circumstances (NCSL publication) ( 154 Kb)
Related Links
Primary National Strategy
Secondary (formerly Key Stage 3) National Strategy
Last Updated 1 August 2008
Published 01 February 2004
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