Appendix 1 - Raising Attainment Strategy 2024-27
Perth and Kinross Council · 11 March 2024
Back to Learning and Families Committee — 11 March 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Education & Children’s Services Improving Lives Together Ambition Compassion Integrity Raising Attainment Strategy 2024-2027 Education and Learning Appendix 1
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Contents Aims and Purpose of the Strategy ................................................................................................................ 1 Our PKC Approach ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Outcomes from 2020-2023 Raising Attainment Strategy .............................................................................. 1 Looking Forward 2024-2027 ......................................................................................................................... 3 Local Context ............................................................................................................................................ 3 National Context ....................................................................................................................................... 3 National Improvement Framework – Drivers and Outcomes ..................................................................... 4 School and ELC Leadership ...................................................................................................................... 4 Teacher and Practitioner Professionalism ................................................................................................. 4 Parent/Carer Involvement and Engagement ............................................................................................. 4 Curriculum and Assessment ..................................................................................................................... 4 School and ELC Improvement .................................................................................................................. 5 Performance Information ........................................................................................................................... 5 Measuring Excellence and Equity ................................................................................................................. 6 Stretch Aims ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Appendix 1 – Roles and Responsibilities ...................................................................................................... 7 Raising Attainment Board ......................................................................................................................... 7 Membership .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Appendix 2 – Scottish Attainment Challenge Funding .................................................................................. 8 Appendix 3 – Improvement Methodology at the Heart of our Processes ....................................................... 9 Appendix 4 – Stretch Aims ......................................................................................................................... 10 Appendix 5 – References ........................................................................................................................... 11 Appendix 6 – Glossary of Acronyms ........................................................................................................... 12
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1 Aims and Purpose of the Strategy The overall aim of the PKC Raising Attainment Strategy is to set out our shared vision, priorities and expectations in relation to raising attainment and achievement for every child and young person to achieve the national ambition of: • excellence through raising attainment, ensuring that every child achieves: o the highest standards in literacy and numeracy; o the right range of skills, qualifications and achievements to succeed; • improving outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. This refreshed strategy reflects our unwavering commitment to achieving the highest outcomes for all, especially those most disadvantaged by poverty. It provides an opportunity to focus on the local and national context; outline the Perth and Kinross approach and details what we will do to measure success. Our PKC Approach In Perth and Kinross, we take a holistic view of attainment, tracking the learning journey from early years into a sustained positive destination for all children and young people, with a particular focus on those who face disadvantage and barriers to learning. We are informed always by our values of Ambition, Compassion and Integrity. We know our data and use it effectively to make sound decisions about allocation of resources and ensure a consistent approach in all sectors to maximise the attainment, achievement and life chances for all of our children and young people. Outcomes from 2020-2023 Raising Attainment Strategy The PKC Raising Attainment Strategy 2020-2023 was implemented during an unprecedented period of significant change arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Extended periods of school closure impacted on several implementation targets which were paused during this time. However, significant progress has been made across all of the themes identified. Details are presented in the infographic below. Progress is reviewed annually and published in the Education Improvement Plan.
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3 Looking Forward 2024-2027 Local Context Perth and Kinross is a diverse area encompassing the City of Perth, many larger and small towns as well as extensive rural areas. Perth and Kinross does not have a significant number of children and young people who are identified, using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), as coming from families potentially affected by poverty. However, a range of other local data, including the ACORN classification, indicates that a number of children and young people are living in households where incomes are low. The numbers of families experiencing poverty has increased as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. Evidence tells us that around 22% of children and young people in our local authority (5914 children) are living in poverty. Poverty is not confined to the urban areas of Perth and Kinross. We know that rural poverty can be less visible, making it harder to identify. Rural deprivation can include factors such as fuel poverty, increased transport costs to access services and low-income employment. National Context Launched in February 2015, The Scottish Attainment Challenge was established to achieve equity in education by ensuring that every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. It is underpinned by The National Improvement Framework, Curriculum for Excellence and Getting it Right for Every Child. It focuses on improvement activity in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing and complements the broader range of initiatives and programmes to ensure that all of Scotland’s children and young people reach their full potential. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the learning of our children and young people and research shows that this had a disproportionate impact on children affected by poverty. The refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge programme, launched in April 2022 aims to address these challenges and ensure that equity lies at the heart of the education experience for all. The mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge is: • to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. • to support education recovery, to increase pace of, and reduce variation in, progress. Initiatives to address the Scottish Attainment Challenge are supported by Attainment Scotland Funding (ASF). Funding allocated to local authorities includes Strategic Equity Funding (SEF), Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) and Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP) funding. Each element of this funding, which has been guaranteed until 2026, aims to improve literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing, supporting recovery from the pandemic, accelerating progress in closing the poverty related attainment gap and ensuring that all children and young people reach their potential. There is a particular focus on the following priority family types that have been identified by the Scottish Government as being at highest risk of experiencing child poverty: • Lone parent families. • Minority ethnic families. • Families with a disabled adult or child. • Families with a young mother (under 25). • Families with a child under one. • Larger families (3+ children).
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4 National Improvement Framework – Drivers and Outcomes The 2023 National Improvement Framework (NIF) and Improvement Plan has six drivers for improvement and five key priorities. These will provide the framework by which we will deliver our improvement activity as detailed in our annual Education Improvement Plan and articulate with the themes of the 2020-2023 strategy as follows: 2023 NIF Drivers of Improvement Raising Attainment Strategy 20-23 Themes School and ELC leadership Leadership at all levels Teacher and practitioner professionalism Excellence in learning and teaching Parent/Carer involvement and engagement Engaging with families and communities Curriculum and assessment Excellence in learning and teaching School and ELC improvement Effective interventions Performance information Use of evidence and data to secure improvement Under each of the NIF Drivers of Improvement, we have identified the main actions we will be taking forward during the lifetime of this Strategy. School and ELC Leadership We will: • Improve system level leadership through collaboration and empowerment. • Extend the professional learning offer of aspiring and current school leaders. • Embed Professional Review and Development to ensure career progression across Education. Teacher and Practitioner Professionalism We will: • Support and maintain the implementation of the 2-18 literacy and numeracy frameworks setting out PKC wide approaches and expectations for all aspects of Literacy and Numeracy. • Deliver universal and targeted literacy and numeracy interventions in schools and settings to improve attainment in listening and talking, reading, writing and maths using improvement methodology tools to measure the effectiveness of our approaches. • Ensure that the health and wellbeing needs of our children and young people are met through our Career Long Professional Learning (CLPL) offer. Parent/Carer Involvement and Engagement We will: • Implement the 3-year action plan as outlined in the PKC Parental Involvement and Engagement strategy. Curriculum and Assessment We will: • Refine and improve our assessment and moderation practice. • Implement Progression Pathways for all curriculum areas in Broad General Education (BGE) i.e. from P1 to S3. • Refresh and revisit our curriculum building in PKC in response to national recommendations and to better meet the needs of all learners.
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5 School and ELC Improvement We will: • Undertake a strategic transformation of our Additional Support Needs (ASN) provision and approaches. • Focus on developing our workforce to ensure we have skilled practitioners able to support the needs of children and young people. • Develop an updated PKC Digital Strategy for Education. Performance Information We will: • Improve the performance data information to better aid intervention at practitioner level. • Track and monitor research-based interventions ensuring that implementation is data-informed and that successful interventions are scaled up as appropriate. • Empower all practitioners to use their data effectively for improvement.
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6 Measuring Excellence and Equity Stretch Aims The progress made in addressing our overarching aim of achieving the highest outcomes for all, especially those most disadvantaged by poverty, will be measured through our Stretch Aims (Appendix 4). These are national measures which have been developed to mark the progress being made in addressing key priorities over time. These are agreed locally through robust, evidence-informed self-evaluation, supported and challenged through professional dialogue with Education Scotland. They reflect the key priorities of the National Improvement Framework which are: • Placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of education; • Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing; • Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people; • Improvement in skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people; and • Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy. Within our core and locally agreed stretch aims, outcomes for the groups detailed below are the key focus of activity funded through the Scottish Attainment Challenge in Perth and Kinross. • Improved attainment for those children and young people most affected by poverty. • Improved attainment for learners in the lowest 20% of our cohorts. • Improved attainment for all children and young people with significant barriers to learning. • Improved attainment for all our care-experienced children and young people. Our performance locally and nationally will be measured against Core (national) and Core Plus (local) Stretch Aims detailed in Appendix 4 and reported in the Education Improvement Plan.
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7 Appendix 1 – Roles and Responsibilities Raising Attainment Board The Raising Attainment Board (RAB) has strategic oversight of activity targeted at raising attainment and closing the poverty-related gap. In termly meetings, the board reviews and monitors the progress being made towards strategic objectives; and by schools in meeting key priorities and stretch aims. The aims and responsibilities of the Board are to: • convey the direction of travel for raising attainment within Education and Learning. • share expectations and levels of accountability with other strategy groups or workstreams. • oversee key data and measures to monitor school attainment and performance across the school year, through the performance management framework. • oversee key data and measures to monitor ELC achievement across the year. • have a regular overview of and report on national returns, attainment results, predicted attainment and senior phase data. • monitor, review and evaluate robust systems in relation to Pupil Equity Funding expenditure and track attainment. • report to the E&L Senior Management Team on the progress of the RAB, including the provision of regular thematic reports to update progress and performance that are qualitative and quantitative where relevant, informing the E&L Education Plan. • monitor progress of the Raising Attainment Implementation Plan. Five sub-groups of the board are responsible for delivering actions identified within the following areas: • Performance and Reporting. • Quality Improvement. • Equity/PEF Funded Interventions. • Care Experienced Children and Young People. • Child Poverty. Membership The Board is made up of representatives from Education and Learning and Education Scotland. Membership is designed to be flexible, dependent on focus of scrutiny and to respond to national priorities.
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8 Appendix 2 – Scottish Attainment Challenge Funding Scottish Attainment Challenge: framework for recovery and accelerating progress – gov.scot (www.gov.scot) The PKC Raising Attainment Board continues to oversee the monitoring and evaluation of all Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) funding streams. The refreshed SAC programme was launched in April 2022 and provided a Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress to support future development. A four-year strategic plan for the Scottish Attainment Challenge was established in collaboration with senior leaders and other stakeholders and this year includes the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund. Local Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) guidance reflects expectations within PEF national guidance and the Framework for Progress and Recovery. PEF support and quality assurance processes have been reviewed to ensure effective use of PEF. Plans were reviewed alongside attainment data and targeted, individual feedback was given to all schools. Data supporting the impact of planned interventions are now captured in the PKC Closing the Gap Tool. This enables efficient analysis of a broad range of interventions to close identified gaps, including those resulting from deprivation. Broad data analysis then informs professional development and support, including the spread and promotion of successful interventions. The Care Experienced Children and Young People (CECYP) Fund is managed by colleagues from children’s social work services in partnership with education. The inclusion of two stretch aims focused on CECYP requires an explicit link between the impact of interventions and educational outcomes of identified individuals. Current interventions support the provision of a national mentoring programme, wider engagement with the PKC PRAISE team, support from a volunteer tutor organisation and a local mentoring programme for those who live independently.
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9 Appendix 3 – Improvement Methodology at the Heart of our Processes PKC Improvement Methodology has been further strengthened by a focus on processes within the Model for Improvement. This provides simple yet powerful tools designed to accelerate improvement which are intended to complement and build on work that schools have already undertaken to raise attainment and close the poverty related gap. Nationally, Model for Improvement approaches are extensively used in healthcare and by Children and Young Peoples Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC). This framework provides a clear structure for developing, testing and implementing changes leading to sustainable improvement. PKC Improvement Methodology professional learning for senior leaders outlines the key components of the improvement journey and the roots of improvement science and includes a focus on the: • variety of Improvement Methodology tools and how to implement these in a school setting. • Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA cycle). • range of qualitative and qualitative data available to schools. • key steps in writing effective aims and measures within quality improvement plans. • key elements for creating the right conditions for implementing change. • spread and scale change process. Evidence-based and data-driven improvement activity is expanding. Interventions to address the poverty- related gap are increasingly well-planned and well-evaluated to show impact. School leaders are supported to use PKC Improvement Methodology (which combines action research and Model for Improvement strategies) and tools from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to analyse school level data to identify attainment gaps, and from there to select and evaluate appropriate interventions. It is recognised that individual schools need to respond according to their own data, current developments and staff skill set. The PKC Improvement Methodology is designed to support this. In the strongest examples, schools have selected a smaller number of very focussed interventions and approaches with clear outcomes and measures in place. A clear evidence base exists for interventions that can support schools to close the attainment gap. The Scottish Attainment Challenge: Learning and Teaching Toolkit, the Early Years Toolkit and the Sutton Trust-EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit all provide accessible summaries of educational research which provide guidance for teachers, practitioners, schools and other settings on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils. All schools are organised into comparator or ‘family’ groups which promote collaboration and moderation activity. Schools are supported to make best use of data to track and monitor improvement and intervention activity. Quality improvement outcomes are framed by available data and this work is being informed by the PKC approach to model for improvement. Analysis, tracking and monitoring of planned interventions has been enhanced through wider and more effective use of the Closing the Gap Tool, targeted equity network support, and increased collaboration of central Education and Learning (E&L) staff, support from the human resources and finance teams to better engage with schools to ensure effective Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) spend. Continued challenge and support to schools has been provided from the Quality Improvement team complementing wider opportunities for teacher professional learning. This work supported raised expectations of pupil progress and is increasing practitioner confidence in learning and teaching and moderation at classroom level and in making informed judgements. There is evidence of greater consistency across staff and schools in relation to achievement of a level from latest achievement of a level data.
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10 Appendix 4 – Stretch Aims Stretch Aims are national measures which have been developed to mark the progress being made in addressing key priorities over time. These are agreed locally through robust, evidence-informed self- evaluation, supported and challenged through professional dialogue with Education Scotland. They set high expectations to help ensure significant progress is made in recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and in achieving the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge. Our Core Stretch Aims, which are common for all local authorities will reflect progress in the following indicators: • Curriculum for Excellence levels (ACEL levels) for P1, 4, 7 Literacy combined and Numeracy; • Proportion of school leavers attaining one or more passes at SCQF level 5 based on 'Summary statistics for attainment and initial leaver destinations' publication; • Proportion of school leavers attaining one or more passes at SCQF level 6 based on 'Summary statistics for attainment and initial leaver destinations' publication; • Participation measure: proportion of 16-19 years olds participating in education, employment or training based on Annual Participation Measure produced by Skills Development Scotland; and • Health and wellbeing, using data for attendance and exclusions. In addition, we have identified the following Core Plus Stretch aims which will measure progress against specific local priorities: • S3 Level 3 Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy combined to measure attainment at the end of BGE. • The proportion of children starting P1 who meet all expected development milestones reflecting the importance of early intervention in closing the poverty-related attainment gap. • Average total tariff points to provide an enhanced reflection of the complexity and totality of senior phase attainment. • Curriculum for Excellence levels (ACEL) for P1, 4, 7 Literacy and Numeracy combined for Looked After Children (LAC). This cohort is a particular focus in PKC. • Total Tariff Points for LAC School Leavers. Details of the agreed and published Stretch Aims and progress over time can be viewed here.
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11 Appendix 5 – References Scottish Attainment Challenge: framework for recovery and accelerating progress – gov.scot (www.gov.scot) Education - Achieving Excellence and Equity: National Improvement Framework and improvement plan 2023 Curriculum for Excellence review: implementation framework Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC): policy statement Pupil Equity Funding: national operational guidance 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) Strategic Equity Funding: national operational guidance 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
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12 Appendix 6 – Glossary of Acronyms Acronym Meaning ACEL Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Level ACORN Acorn Consumer Classification ASF Attainment Scotland Funding ASN Additional Support Needs BGE Broad General Education CECYP Care-experienced Children and Young People CLPL Career-long Professional Learning CYPIC Children and Young Peoples Improvement Collaborative E&L Education and Learning EEF Education Endowment Foundation ELC Early Learning and Childcare GIRFEC Getting it Right for Every Child LAC Looked After Children NIF National Improvement Framework PEF Pupil Equity Funding PDSA Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA cycle) RAB Raising Attainment Board SAC Scottish Attainment Challenge SCQF Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework SEF Strategic Equity Funding SIMD Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation SMT Senior Management Team