Agenda item

The Select Committee received progress updates in relation to its previous review of Narrowing the Gap in Educational Attainment.

The review had been carried out using an Appreciative Inquiry Approach. The benefit of the approach had been in the awareness raising of the issues. It had also brought all stakeholders together at events and secured support for agreed objectives and future action.

The Select Committee received progress updates in relation to the following recommendations:

Refine teaching strategies

Further refine teaching strategies to improve lesson enjoyment, encourage speaking and listening and strengthen understanding also ensuring that teaching is tailored to the needs of the individual child.

Developing speaking and listening skills

Ø  Ensure the curriculum and school clubs provide opportunities to develop speaking and listening skills, for example through debating clubs.

Ø  Raise awareness of regional and national opportunities to develop speaking and listening skills

Enhance curriculum development

Work with partners and labour markets, making more explicit links to future employment.

Ø  Innovate a local curriculum.

Enhance skills to respond to special needs

Increase range of opportunities to enhance skills in mainstream schools to respond to Special Educational Needs (SEN), Child Protection Plans (CPP) and Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA):

Ø  Share best practice of integrating SEN pupils into mainstream schools.

Ø  Promote vocational opportunities.

A presentation was also provided which highlighted:

Action Taken

·         Established a (free) primary oracy network – meeting half termly

·         Sharing of good practice

·         Further developed the CPD programme – with a particular focus on SEN

·         Development of Post-16 strategy

·         Development of Skills for Success programme

·         ‘Our Children, Our Future’ conference

What is Working Well

·         Developing partnerships and joining the dots

·         Sharing evidence-based good practice

·         Constant reflection on impact – increasingly taking into account the views of children and young people

·         Uptake of and access to CPD, particularly around SEND

Our Learning

·         Even with free networks and Continuous Professional Development (CPD), it was difficult to engage with some schools

·         Some of the initial plans had needed to change and adapt due to capacity and in response to the needs of stakeholders

·         The focus on building partnerships (relating to all four priorities) had been beneficial and allowed individuals to engage with different perspectives

·         Many schools were keen to develop oracy and could see the benefits – but were starting from a low baseline

·         The CPD offered around SEND was much improved, but needed further development

Impact so far

·         Although the gap in attainment for children in Stockton remained too wide, the attainment of disadvantaged children in Stockton was above the national average for this group on every measure and was consistently amongst the highest in the region

·         Attainment of children with SEND was improving for every measure at KS2

·         Over half the primary schools in Stockton had engaged with at least one of the oracy networks – 16 schools had registered to participate in the Poetry Slam in January 2026, and a programme of ‘big events’ was planned for the year

·         Raised profile of oracy – school improvement priority for many

·         469 people had attended one of the free training events provided through the Delivering Better Value funding

·         SENCo networks had been reshaped and were now providing more opportunity to share practice and promote school to school support and problem solving

·         Skills for Success programmes had shown strong impact for individuals at risk of exclusion – and the Council had successfully secured a £31K bid from the DfE to further develop the programme

·         Careers Leaders Network had been established and was growing – with schools committed to working collaboratively to develop opportunities for work experience and embed careers in the curriculum

Key issues highlighted and discussed were as follows:

·         It was disappointing that even with free networks and CPD, it was difficult to engage with some multi academy trusts. However, it was acknowledged that some trusts operated cross boundary which added a complexity and many had their own successful approaches. Notwithstanding this, the team continued to seek to engage with all Stockton schools

·         The ability for children and young people to articulate their views and feelings was important also for managing behaviour

·         10-12 schools to date had engaged with all the oracy events

·         Research showed that debating had a positive impact on educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and Members asked the network to consider the benefits of establishing a Youth Council for the Borough

·         It was important to reduce exclusion rates and Members asked for up-to-date exclusion data to be provided to the Select Committee

·         The Poetry Slam was only focused on primary at this stage but might be extended to secondary in due course. Members asked whether some secondary schools could be invited to the event in January 2026

AGREED that the information be noted and further details be provided as set out above.