Report of the Director ofEducation

Thisreportprovidesasummary of the 2022provisionaloutcomes ofstatutory assessment attheendoftheEarlyYearsFoundationStage, Key Stage 1, KeyStage 2, KeyStage 4 and KeyStage5.

Outcomes for children in the primary phase have declined nationally as a result of the pandemic, however, the impact in Manchester is far more significant than elsewhere especially for our younger children who missed out on most of their early years education and are now in year 1.  The report concludes with a list of actions which are being progressed to address some of the gaps in learning including a proposal for additional support to year 1 cohorts in some of our schools in the most deprived areas of the city. 

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Education which provided a summary of the 2022 provisional outcomes of statutory assessment at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5.  The report described how outcomes for children in the primary phase had declined nationally as a result of the pandemic and that the impact in Manchester was far more significant than elsewhere especially for younger children who had missed out on most of their early years and were now in year 1. The report concluded with a list of actions which were being progressed to address some of the gaps in learning including a proposal for additional support to year 1 cohorts in some of schools in the most deprived areas of the city.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• Headline outcomes based on provisional performance data for 2022 for:
  • Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS);
  • Year 1 Phonics Test;
  • Key Stage 1;
  • Key Stage 2;
  • Key Stage 4; and
  • Key Stage 5; and
• Next steps.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services drew Member’s attention to a letter he had written to the Education Secretary, highlighting the impact of the pandemic on younger children in the city, and warned of the negative consequences if this was not addressed.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To support the Executive Member’s comments about the importance of taking action to address the impact of the pandemic on children;
• How to support children in the areas that they had fallen behind in during the pandemic without reducing time spent on play, which was also important to their development; and
• Recognising the hard work of Manchester teachers and other school staff, the ongoing challenges facing them and that the impact on children from not being in school demonstrated what an important difference schools made to children’s development.

The Assistant Director of Education reported that the response from the national government to addressing the learning debt from the pandemic had focused on tuition; however, she advised that very young children had a deficit of social interaction, were not ready for sitting and learning and needed to do a lot of play and have a rich language environment.  She reported that Manchester schools were responding to this by adapting the curriculum for the younger age groups, looking at where the gaps were for their pupils and responding to that.  She advised that neither Ofsted nor the Council’s Quality Assurance Team would support forcing children into learning activities which they were not yet ready for.    

The Director of Education expressed concern that the impact of the pandemic on children would be forgotten as there was no quick solution to this and it would need sustained effort over a number of years, particularly for younger children.  She reported that different age groups appeared to have responded differently, with children in Reception and Year 1 being very lively and not ready to sit and learn but with younger children who had been born in lockdown and were now going into nursery tending to be quiet and passive, so different approaches would be needed.

The Chair drew Members’ attention to information she had circulated from the FFT Education Data Lab on attainment at Key Stage 1 following the pandemic.  She advised that the pandemic had had the most impact on more deprived areas, in particular in the north-west.  She suggested that research could be done through one of the universities.  She reported that the validated attainment data would come back to the Committee.  She highlighted the effects that the pandemic had had on babies and young children and how family circumstances had impacted the effect it had on children, for example, whether parents had the time and the academic ability to support their children’s learning.  She requested that the Committee receive a further, more detailed report at an appropriate time on how schools were progressing with this work.

Decisions

1.            To note that the Committee will receive the validated attainment data when this is available.

2.            To request a further, more detailed report at an appropriate time on how schools are progressing with work to address the impact of the pandemic on children’s learning.