Draft Progress and Impact Report 2023-24 strategic plan 2024-26 CSC 10.08
Argyll and Bute Council · 22 August 2024
Back to Community Services Committee — 22 August 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Appendix 1
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2 Contents Page Section 1: Foreword and Introduction Councillor Audrey Forrest Policy Lead for Education Douglas Hendry Executive Director, Community Services 3 Section 2: Glossary of terms and acronyms Background information Information about this document 4 5 6 Section 3: Report on Impact and Progress 2023-24 National Improvement Framework (NIF) Priority 1: Placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of education. 7-8 National Improvement Framework (NIF) Priority 2: Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing. 9-14 National Improvement Framework (NIF) Priority 3: Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people. 15-20 National Improvement Framework (NIF) Priority 4: Improvement in skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people 21-25 National Improvement Framework (NIF) Priority 5: Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy 26-35 Section 4: Overview of Education Strategic Plan 2024-26 36-43 Appendix 1: Stretch Aims 2023-26 44-47
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3 SECTION 1: Foreword and Introduction As Executive Director for Education, I am pleased to add a Director’s perspective to the Policy Lead for Education’s foreword to Argyll and Bute Council’s Education Progress and Impact Report for 2023- 2024 and Strategic Plan 2024-26. Our vision for education in Argyll and Bute continues to be that, together, we will realise ambition, excellence, and equality for all. The work which we have undertaken is wide reaching and demonstrates the commitment to improvement of all Education Service staff, enabling us to take forward our very high aspirations. Section 4 of this document reflects the areas for improvement identified through an extensive audit process led by the Service’s Quality Improvement Team, to identify strengths in our current provision and areas where further improvement is required and provides a framework for improvement for our schools and settings for 2024-26. The areas of focus align closely with the priorities of the Scottish Attainment Challenge, National Improvement Framework, Education Service Strategy and the Argyll and Bute Corporate Plan 2023- 27. Following extensive consultation, we are in the process of refreshing the Education Service vision and strategy and responses to the consultation have helped to shape our Strategic Plan for 2024-2026. Our continued focus and the purpose of this plan is to ensure that we provide the best possible learning experiences and opportunities for all our children and young people, which support and reaffirm our commitment to excellence through equity for all. We are determined to improve our services for everyone who uses them, and the Education Strategic Plan sits at the centre of that commitment. I hope you find it both informative and useful. The Education Service always strives to make improvements, and we welcome any suggestions you may have which will help Argyll and Bute Council’s Education Service to make the greatest positive impact on outcomes for all our children, young people and communities. Kind Regards, Douglas Hendry As Policy Lead for Education, I am delighted to be able to present to you Argyll and Bute Council’s Education Progress and Impact Report for 2023-24 and the Strategic Plan for 2024-26. Since assuming the role of Policy Lead, I have been impressed by the focus and drive of our Early Learning Centre settings and our schools to improve outcomes for all our children and young people. The report highlights the wide-ranging work of the Education Service which supports our children and young people in realising their ambitions for learning, life, and work. The Strategic Plan sets out a range of activities and ambitious outcomes which demonstrate our aspirations and expectations for all our children and young people. It is the strength of this work that will allow us to realise our vision. I commend the Progress and Impact Report and the Strategic Plan to you. These demonstrate the ways and means by which our Education Service is ambitiously striving for excellence through equity in order to deliver improved outcomes for all our children, young people, their families and our communities across Argyll and Bute Kind regards, Audrey Forrest Councillor Audrey Forrest Policy Lead for Education Douglas Hendry Executive Director
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4 Glossary of Terms and Acronyms ASL Additional Support for Learning HMIE His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education ASN Additional Support Needs LAC Looked After Children and Young People Aifl Assessment is for Learning NIF National Improvement Framework BGE Broad General Education NPF National Performance Framework BWG Education Service Budget Working NSA National Standardised Assessments CEYP Care Experienced Young People OCTNE Our Children, Their Nurturing Education CfE Curriculum for Excellence PATHS Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies CLD Community Learning and Development PEF Pupil Equity Funding CLPL Career Long Professional Learning PSE Personal and Social Education COSLA Convention of Scottish Local Authorities SAC Scottish Attainment Challenge DSM Devolved School Management SCQF Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework ELC Early Learning and Childcare SEF Strategic Equity Funding EPS Educational Psychology Service SIMD Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages SQA Scottish Qualifications Authority FE Further Education SRA Shared Risk Assessment FTE Full Time Equivalent SSSC Scottish Social Services Council GIRFEC Getting it Right for Every Child SVQ Scottish Vocational Qualifications GTCS General Teaching Council (for Scotland) UCAS Universities and Colleges Admission Service HE Higher Education UNCRC United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child HGIOS4 How Good is Our School 4? VLE Virtual Learning Environment HGIOELC How Good is Our Early Learning and Childcare? VSE Validated Self Evaluation
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SECTION 2: Background Information Argyll and Bute, the second largest Local Authority by area, covers approximately 9% of the total land area of Scotland. Argyll and Bute has the third sparsest population density (0.12 persons per hectare). The population of around 86,000 is distributed across an area of just under 2,700 square miles. More than half of Argyll and Bute's population live in rural areas, as classified by the Scottish Government's Urban-Rural Classification (2016). A further 35% live in communities with populations between 3,000 and 10,000 people, designated as small towns. Less than a fifth of the population live in an urban area with a population of over 10,000 people. Argyll and Bute is an area of outstanding natural beauty with mountains, sea lochs, and 23 inhabited islands. The geography provides challenges for service delivery, particularly in communications and transport. The decline in population experienced to date, and that projected in the future, presents a significant challenge to the overall viability of the area. This challenge is made more difficult by the variation in population changes over the areas within our Local Authority. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) has been used to identify pockets of overall deprivation within Argyll and Bute. Based on the SIMD 2020, 10 data zones in Argyll and Bute are in the 15% most overall deprived data zones in Scotland. 8 data zones are in the 15% most employment deprived data zones. In 13 of Argyll and Bute’s data zones, more than 10%, are in the 1% most access deprived data zones. The most access deprived data zone in Scotland covers the islands of Coll and Tiree. Due to the fact that SIMD identifies concentrations of deprivation, smaller pockets and instances of individual deprivation are not picked up by the index. In session 2023/24 we had approximately 5267 pupils in our primary schools, 4603 pupils in our secondary schools and 45 in our complex additional support needs school. Overview of the Education Service The vision for education in Scotland is excellence and equity - excellence through raising attainment and improving outcomes and equity ensuring every child and young person has the same opportunity to succeed. Argyll and Bute’s vision and strategy for Education, Our Children, Their Future, echoes this with the vision of making Argyll and Bute the best place to grow up. Our vision is that together we will realise ambition, excellence and equality for all. Our vision sends a signal about the importance we attach to education, is simple in message and is recognised by everyone. The Education vision is underpinned by our values: respect, openness and fairness. This vision is being delivered for all our children through the following 6 key objectives: We will: • Raise educational attainment and achievement for all. • Use performance information to secure improvement for children and young people. • Ensure children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. • Equip young people to secure and sustain positive destinations and achieve success in life. • Ensure high quality partnership working and community engagement; • Strengthen leadership at all levels. Following extensive stakeholder consultation, our Education Service Vision and Strategy will be refreshed by March 2025. The Education Service is currently responsible for: • Sixty-five primary schools • Five 2-18 schools • Five secondary schools • One school for pupils with complex additional needs • Early Learning and Childcare spaces are currently available in 4 Council Nursery Centres, 49 ELC settings, 5 ELC Gaelic medium units, 22 partner provider ELC establishments, 4 outdoor nurseries (three partnership and one Local Authority) and 29 funded partner childminders. Gaelic Medium Education (GME) is available in five Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) provisions: Bowmore on Islay, Rockfield in Oban, Salen on Mull, Sandbank in Dunoon and also Tiree. GME is available in 7 primary schools: Bowmore, Rockfield, Salen, Bunessan, Strath of Appin, Sandbank and Tiree High School (primary department). The pupil roll in each Gaelic Medium (GM) provision is growing, with Salen Primary School and Tiree Primary School having more pupils learning through the medium of Gaelic than English. We currently have 80 Ukrainian children and young people (6 in ELC, 37 in primary and 37 in secondary), 35 Afghan children and young people (4 in ELC, 27 in primary and 4 in secondary. We also have 18 children and young people from Sudan and Syria under the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) (1 in ELC, 13 in primary, 4 in secondary) and 3 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people (UASC) in secondary. Resourcing Our Plan: The Education Service Budget Service Area 2024-25 2023-24 Additional Support for Learning 11,787,495 11,064,004 Central/Management Costs 1,906,158 1,708,953 Early Learning & Childcare* 17,497,317 9,113,337 Primary Education 40,496,298 37,705,315 Pupil Support 2,418,849 2,323,832 Schools - Central Services 2,376,547 2,491,243 Secondary Education 37,264,437 37,252,847 113,747,101 101,659,531 * Increase in ELC budget in 2024-25 is primarily due to a change to the Scottish Government method of funding 1140, resulting in removal of grant income budget of £7.6m
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6 About this document Evidence for the Progress and Impact Report is gathered through a range of activities designed to provide challenge and support to schools and ELC settings. Evidence for the 2023-24 report has been informed by the following sources: • Performance and questionnaire data • Feedback gathered through the Parental Advisory Group (PAG), • Intelligence and review reports on schools and early learning and childcare settings from the Quality Improvement Team • Feedback from our Collaborative Improvement activity in association with ADES and Education Scotland • Thematic reviews reports, inspection reports and triannual reports by Education Scotland • Responses to our Service Vision and Strategy refresh • Reports on Early Learning and Childcare Settings by Care Inspectorate Scotland • School and service Improvement Plans and Standards and Quality Reports, • Focus groups with children and young people from a number of schools in different contexts across Argyll and Bute The report and updated plan are also informed by: • Scottish Government’s GIRFEC wellbeing indicators • Argyll and Bute Education Service Strategy and Vision ‘Our Children, their Future’ • Argyll and Bute’s Community Plan and Single Outcome Agreement • Argyll and Bute Council Corporate Plan 2023-2027 • Argyll and Bute Children and Young People’s Service Plan 2023- 2026 • Scottish Government’s National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan • The four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence • Education service self-evaluation activities and evidence • Recent national publications including It’s Our Future- Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment, All Learners in Scotland Matter: Findings from the National Discussion on Scottish Education, Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education, OECD Independent Review of Curriculum for Excellence, Support for Learning: All our children and All their potential, Fit for the Future: developing a post-school learning system to fuel economic transformation, Upper-secondary education student assessment in Scotland The information contained within this report will also help to inform the Education Service report on progress we are making towards addressing the National Improvement Framework (NIF) priorities and our National Improvement Framework (NIF) Plan for 2024-25. The Education Plan has been prepared in compliance with the requirements set out in the Statutory Guidance, accompanying the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000.
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7 SECTION 3: Report on Progress and Impact 2023-24 Progress and Impact Our commitment to the rights of children and young people continues to underpin our work as a service and the work of our schools and ELC settings. The Wellbeing, Rights and Relationships team in partnership with a number of other agencies and central team staff have continued to drive forward work in this area. During session 2023-24, this has included: • Increased engagement with the Rights Respecting School (RRS) programme and this has impacted positively on the number of schools receiving RRS awards. Since June 2023, 9 schools have achieved Bronze, 9 have achieved silver and 4 have achieved gold. A refreshed approach to the RRS networks and training has helped engage schools who were yet to begin their RRS journey. A development plan is ensuring that we are working towards a sustainable approach to supporting RRS once Scottish Government withdraws the funding for this in March 2025. Engagement in RRS is ensuring that schools have a clear focus on embedding the rights of children and young people. • We have piloted an approach to an Argyll & Bute Youth Voice Group Work. This was evaluated through discussion with the young people in June. Guidance for this group will be revisited following their feedback. The Youth Voice Group has provided a structure to manage consultation/feedback requests from children and young people. Young People have influenced approaches to key pieces of work that include Sexual Health Strategy Development, Education Strategic Vision and Values, Child Poverty Action Plan, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Report and Economic Growth. This has ensured that children and young people have influenced wider authority policy and practice. • UNCRC Professional Learning has been made available to all Argyll & Bute Council staff via LEON, increasing awareness of the responsibility of all to adhere to the new legislation. • We have continued to refine and refresh the support offered for children and young people with additional support needs and/or in minority groups. A central feature of this work has been providing professional learning opportunities for staff including deaf awareness, assistive technology and Child Inclusion Research into Curriculum Learning Education (CIRCLE) resource. These are helping to enhance staff knowledge and skills. We have continued to undertake focussed work to support children and young people from Gypsy Traveller backgrounds through raising awareness of staff and participation in Traveller Education Network (TENET) meetings enabling staff to access a wider support network and resources linked to supporting Gypsy Traveller families. There are now more robust approaches in place to tracking the participation and progress of children and young people from Gypsy Traveller backgrounds. This is ensuring that children and young people from this background are more meaningfully included and involved. An increasing number of Early Years settings across each locality have engaged in CLPL opportunities focussing on ‘Rights-based practices with young children’. Practitioners have explored and reflected on ‘What we believe about children and childhood informs and influences interactions, experiences, spaces’. This has helped to further develop awareness of the responsibility that staff in our Early Years settings have to influence ethos and the culture within their own setting and beyond and has supported staff to reflect on their unique context and shared beliefs about children and childhood. This has supported greater clarity of purpose around consideration of the key questions of ‘why, what and how?’ as evidenced through dialogue towards more effective strategic planning and with greater understanding of the limitations of superficial practices i.e. labelling learning with Articles/ Wellbeing Indicators/ Experiences and Outcomes. We have continued to ensure that diversity of languages and cultures is celebrated and promoted across the authority. This is particularly evident in the work that has been undertaken to promote the Gaelic language in order to ensure that it continues to be given a high profile. Progress in this area has included: NIF Priority 1: Placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of education. Education Service Strategic Priority 1.1: We will protect and promote Children’s Rights through the promotion of inclusion and celebration of diversity for all of our learners.
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8 • Principal Teacher for languages has focussed on Gaelic language and supporting establishments to embed Gaelic as their L2 or L3. The number of schools delivering Gaelic as L2/3 has increased by 16%. This increase has been supported by the introduction of ‘live lessons’. The consistency and quality of language learning has been improved through opportunities to engage in high quality professional development and support in delivering language learning. • CLPL and planned support for schools and practitioners to deliver Gaelic (and French) as L2 and other languages including Gaelic as L3. • 26 schools (39 teachers) have participated in French Live lessons and 15 schools (21 teachers) have participated in Gaelic Live lessons. 2 schools have participated in German live lessons. Evaluations of live lessons have shown that in nearly all classes pupils' confidence and engagement in language learning increased and the teachers’ confidence in teaching languages increased. • Gaelic as L3 is being supported in 6 primary schools through online Gaelic lessons by Feisgoil and E-Sgoil. • ‘Mini Gaelic Language in the Primary School’ (GLPS) course has been delivered to 7 practitioners this included 6 online sessions and a 2-day residential. • 8 practitioners have signed up to undertake Nat 5, Higher and Advanced Higher Gaelic. This is leading to improved knowledge and practitioner confidence in delivering Gaelic lessons. • All probationer teachers have benefitted from bespoke input and professional learning sessions in languages. This has helped to develop their knowledge of approaches to teaching L2 and L3. • Schools have been supported to develop approaches to celebrate and promote diversity through access to SCILT (Scotland’s National Centre for Languages) courses. 10 schools are involved with SCILT programmes in Arabic and Mandarin. • L2 language progression frameworks completed for Gaelic and are being piloted with schools. This is supporting progression and consistency of learning experiences. • A Google site has been created for all language resources and information and publicised to all schools. This is accessible to all practitioners and is supporting the promotion and delivery of language learning in Argyll and Bute. This includes the Northern Alliance Professional Learning Hub on-line resource. • Gaelic/French transition project was taken forward with OLI cluster. This will be further developed next session to ensure participation and submission of videos from all schools. Cowal language transition project was successful with all schools taking part. Islay and Jura transition project is now established which they effectively moderate. This good practice will be shared with other clusters. This helped to further develop children’s language skills and improve transitions across sectors. • This session, all GME schools have been supported by the Education Officer with responsibility for Gaelic through lesson observations and professional dialogue. This then involved a follow up visit from M McKinnon (Ed Scot) to further develop improvements in GME. This is supporting on-going improvements in the quality and consistency of children’s experiences and attainment in GME. All of these activities are helping to raise the profile of Gaelic and other languages across Argyll and Bute and are impacting positively on learners’ experiences and language skills. The Council has undertaken a consultation on the establishment of a Gaelic School in Argyll and Bute. Responses are being analysed and collated and a report on the outcome of the consultation will be taken to a future meeting of the full Council. What are we going to do now? • Further develop approaches to promoting and celebrating diversity through partnership working and supporting schools to obtain national recognition for their work in this area. Support schools to ensure that their curriculum celebrates and promotes diversity, is de-colonised and inclusive. • Continue to support establishments on their journey to achieving ‘Rights Respecting’ accreditation through universal and targeted approaches. • Continue to further develop partnership working with a range of services including third sector organisations in order to ensure that the Children’s Rights agenda underpins the work of our schools and services. • Further improve the quality and consistency in children’s experiences, attainment and achievement within Gaelic Medium Education across Argyll and Bute. • Further develop approaches to celebrate and promote diversity through languages and culture with a specific focus on Gaelic.
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9 SECTION 3: Report on Progress and Impact 2023-24 Progress and Impact Equalities, Wellbeing, Rights and Relationships We know that health and wellbeing is an important factor in children and young people’s success. There has been a continued focus on supporting children and young people in maintaining their physical and mental health and wellbeing. Progress and impact in this area includes: • Following a successful pilot with 2 schools, the Planet Youth programme has been extended to 5 secondary schools. This approach measures risk and protective factors to help inform community approaches to health and wellbeing. Scottish Government funding has also allowed us to support community engagement and awareness work through the appointment of a PT for Attendance and Engagement and a Health Improvement Advisor, ensuring that there is a joined-up approach to this work across NHS and Education. • Health data has been further enhanced with the introduction of the use of the Glasgow Wellbeing and Motivation Profile Tool and the School Climate Survey. Training has taken place with secondary Health and Wellbeing leads to ensure that there is confidence in using this data to evaluate health and wellbeing within schools and inform improvements. The use of this data in monitoring wellbeing has also been highlighted within the newly developed Relationships Policy Guidance. • Active engagement in the Violence Against Women & Girls Project Board to connect the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) early intervention work with the broader safer together strategy being developed across the local authority has continued. Professional learning through the Violence Against Women and Girls Project has been extended to provide Family Liaison Workers with this training. 3 Family Liaison Workers and 1 Education Support Officer (ESO) has registered for this training. • The Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) programme has continued to be developed in line with MVP Action Plan. The action plan has helped to ensure strategic direction and focussed approach to implementation of MVP. MVP is a peer mentoring programme that gives young people the chance to explore and challenge the attitudes, beliefs and cultural norms that underpin all forms of gender-based violence in our society. We have a robust 3 year. In November 2023, 17 staff were trained to deliver this programme, with annual capacity training now in place within the CLPL catalogue to ensure that the approach is sustainable. 7 of our 10 Secondary Schools are now trained to deliver the programme. • The network organised and hosted a newly established annual conference in November 23 with 30 participants from schools and partner agencies. The network has supported the engagement of 4 schools in the LGBTQ+ Youth Scotland Charter with Oban High School having completed their Silver Charter award and Hermitage Academy, Rothesay Joint Campus and Tobermory High School all beginning their Charter journey. The impact of this work can be seen through the Planet Youth Survey results with 2% of Argyll & Bute pupils across the 5 participating schools identifying as non-binary/other, increasing to 3% in Oban High School and Tobermory High School. Planet Youth data demonstrated that in participating schools across Scotland, this figure is 4%. Impact of work around LGBTQ+ has also been evidenced through a short presentation created by Hermitage Academy pupils. • The Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) Training was included in the CLPL catalogue with awareness raised through the LGBTQ+ Network and the HT Meeting in November with regards to the expectation that all teachers in Scotland will complete this CLPL. At both events, TIE provided a CLPL session. The impact has been an increase in engagement of 133% since December 23 with 14 schools engaged and 48 users registered on the website and 30 members of staff completed the Stage 1 E- learning module. NIF Priority 2: Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing. Education Service Strategic Priority 2.1: We will support improvement in children and young people's health and wellbeing through the use of targeted approaches and understanding of learning and learners to enhance experiences in different contexts, which will support attainment and achievement across the four capacities.
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10 • The ADP School Support Services contracts were paused for review. The new contracts will be issued in August 2024 for a 2-year pilot. The renewed contracts include the requirement to support Planet Youth work and MVP work within relevant schools. The contract also ensures that there is a distinction between this service and counselling service. Our Children, Their Nurturing Education (OCTNE) Work has continued, in collaboration with partners to progress with the implementation of our strategy for embedding effective nurture and relationship-based approaches across all establishments. Progress includes: • Our Children, their Nurturing Education (OCTNE) documents have been refined and now include an OCTNE Implementation Framework for Bronze to Platinum. A Self- Evaluation toolkit has also been developed to include How Good is Our School? 4 (HGIOS4) challenge questions that align with OCTNE. We have also developed supportive documentation which include an exemplar Silver Action Plan and Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) exemplar and a bespoke nurture and relationships-based programme of professional learning for the Argyll and Bute Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) programme and the UHI PGDE course. Whole-school accreditation has increased with 46 settings now on board, including new cohort (51% of active schools, 33 primary schools, 6 secondary schools, 7 ELC/nurseries) 6 new partner ELCs have signed up for cohort 4. Accreditation levels at May 2024 are: Bronze: 22 schools, Silver: 6 schools, Gold: 1 school. The uptake for targeted nurture has increased in this session. Referral for targeted nurture support comes via the link Educational Psychologist to ensure that involvement is relevant. All pupils referred for targeted nurture have remained in in-authority placements. Completed: 18 schools, 22 pupils, Ongoing: 7 schools, 7 pupils. Universal and targeted work in this area has improved approaches to embedding the principles of nurture within schools and settings involved and for targeted pupils, has demonstrated impact in terms of ability to access the curriculum and understand their own feelings and emotions. Other work in this area has included: • All secondary schools returned school climate questionnaires to explore how well a school provides suitable conditions for learning. Data has been analysed for each school and reports are in the process of being finalised. The summary report for across the authority will then be finalised by August 2024. Information from the reports will be shared with schools and is being considered alongside data from Planet Youth surveys and ANA pupil and parent questionnaires. • Session delivered to secondary wellbeing leads across the authority which focused on how schools can use the data they have to support their own self-evaluation and improvement planning. This should lead to improved use of data across secondary schools to inform their own improvement journeys, linking with HGIOS Quality Indicator 1.1 in particular. • Impact of the Counselling in Schools Service delivered by ‘The Exchange’ is being tracked and rigorously monitored on an ongoing basis. Data and evidence gathered is showing very positive impact for children and young people where they feel listened to and supported. • Bespoke training delivered to staff and parents/carers on areas including Lego therapy, Boxall profiles and trauma informed practice. This is helping ensure that children and young people are being supported in a consistent manner across home and school, targeted interventions in school are based on a robust assessment of children’s needs, and a greater use of evidence-based interventions in our schools. Ongoing support from Nurture Teachers has been provided post-training and practitioners are more confident in the purpose and administration of the Boxall Profile. Practitioners are also more confident in using the Boxall to develop individualised targets and curricula. • New Seasons for Growth (SfG) website is now up and running and provides resources and information on bereavement and loss for ‘companions’ (staff who lead the SfG groups). • In session 2023-24, two nurture teachers continued to be centrally funded through our Strategic Equity Funding in order to assist with improvement work in this area. In order to measure the impact of this investment, we devised a ‘Core Plus’ stretch aim. This was a bespoke measure for schools engaged with Argyll and Bute’s ‘Our Children, Their Nurturing Education’ programme. Pupils across nine schools at P1, P4, P7 and S3 formed the sample group. Five questions to measure pupils’ perception
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11 of the wellbeing indicator for ‘achieving’ were developed using a Likert scale. The ‘overall’ measure was a cumulative measure of those responses at scale level 5 for all questions. Preliminary data shown below suggests that we have exceeded the stretch aim in this area. Table 1: ‘Core Plus’ Stretch Aim- Our Children, their Nurturing Education Overall Stretch Aim 2022/23 60% Data pick-up (June 2023) 61.05% Stretch Aim 2023-24 64% Data pick-up (June 2024) 67% Addressing Non-Attendance (ANA) Post –pandemic non-attendance continues to be a major issue both locally and nationally. Tables 2 and 3 illustrate attendance statistics as of May 2024 across Argyll and Bute Establishments, our stretch aims for 2023-24 and our progress against meeting the stretch aims at May 2024. Tables 2 and 3: HWB – Attendance in Primary and Secondary - Free School Meal registered and Non-Free School Meal Registered HWB – Attendance in Primary - Free School Meal registered and Non-Free School Meal Registered Overall FSM registered Non-FSM registered GAP (FSM/non- FSM) Stretch Aim 2022-23 96% 93% 96.06% 3.06pp Data pick-up (May 2023) 92.71% 88.86% 93.43% 4.57pp Stretch Aim 2023-24 93.5% 89.25% 93.5% 4.25pp Data pick-up (May 2024) 93.2% 90.2 93.8 3.6pp HWB – Attendance in Secondary - Free School Meal registered and Non- Free School Meal Registered Overall FSM registered Non-FSM registered GAP (FSM/non- FSM) Stretch Aim 2022-23 93% 87% 93% 5.60pp Data pick-up (May 2023) 88.33% 81.24% 89.46% 8.23pp Stretch Aim 2023-24 90% 82% 89.5% 7.5pp Data pick-up (May 2024) 92.5% 88.8% 93.1% 4.3pp
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12 A significant strategic project involving a wide range of stakeholders is ongoing in order to implement a consistent approach to assessment, training and intervention for addressing non-attendance across Argyll and Bute establishments. The Addressing Non-Attendance (ANA) training package has been delivered and implemented in our secondary schools to school staff and colleagues from health and social work. Pre and Post training questionnaires demonstrated positive impact in terms of improved staff knowledge. Refreshed, detailed guidance and associated training was launched this session. Due to the need for earlier intervention and identification of non-attenders or those at risk of becoming non-attenders to impact and change the trajectory of secondary non-attendance, a Primary training webinar has been produced and will be available for all primary schools in August 2024. Exclusions In 2023-24, there were 86 exclusion incidents involving 71 pupils across Argyll and Bute, a reduction from previous years and a reduction of almost 50% since session 2019/20. 1 exclusion incident took place in a primary school with the remaining 85 taking place in secondary schools. In session 2023-24 there was a 20% reduction in the number of children and young people with Additional Support Needs who were excluded. Of the children and young people who were excluded in session 2023-24, none were care experienced at the time of exclusion. We will continue to provide targeted support for specific schools where exclusion rates are highest and continued universal guidance and support for all schools around alternatives to exclusion. We are confident that our ongoing work around nurture and trauma informed practice will ensure a continued reduction in these figures. Additional Support Needs and Inclusion A wide range of other activities have been undertaken across our central teams in order to support improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing. These have included: • Continuing to raise awareness and develop staff skills through focussed training sessions giving advice on how to use the CIRCLE (Child Inclusion Research into Curriculum Learning Education) resources to support inclusion across all stages. • PUD (Personal Understanding of Deafness) benchmarks are used with all children to track their progression through Early, 1st, 2nd and 3rd CfE levels. Information will be shared with staff to inform next steps in support. • To ensure the appropriate environment is in place for our more complex learners we have plans to develop 4 new learning centres across Argyll and Bute. Two new learning centres for children with complex additional support needs living in some of Argyll and Bute’s most remote areas will open in 2024, with a further two opening in 2025. The new facilities will include: o Breakout quiet rooms
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13 o Low stimulus and high stimulus sensory rooms o Changing facilities with specialist equipment to meet specific physical needs o Accessible teaching and outdoor spaces The learning centres will also develop curriculum plans to include a wide range of flexible and individualised approaches to support the learners to achieve their potential, supported by staff who are experience in working in the area of complex needs. • We have established a pupil support leadership network in order to provide a mechanism to enhance skills and sharing of professional learning of additional support needs assistants and pupil support assistants. • Working to enable staff to access the staged intervention framework and to implement the guidance within in it in a consistent way for our young people with additional support needs, we have created a flowchart and reviewed the ASN matrix of need. This has resulted in a refreshed understanding of the universal offer and has promoted best practice in implementing the staged intervention framework in mainstream settings. • Additional tracking and monitoring of attendance and attainment has led to targeted support and interventions for Care Experienced children and young people. As a result, close analysis of the data has shown positive outcomes from this including an increase in positive destinations to 94%, which is above our target of 85%. In addition to this personalised support has been put in place to maximise attendance for this cohort, attendance data aligns to the national picture. During this session, no care experienced children on young people were excluded. Interventions to support this sustained level of low number of exclusions includes individual work with children by Health and Wellbeing Liaison Officers, school-based personalised support, Ed Psychology support, health discussions and wider partnership working. Early Years Through locality meetings and professional learning opportunities, a number of areas of early years provision have been progressed. These include: • Focus on ‘Community providing continuity during times of change’ through use of Reggio Emilia approach provocation. This has encouraged settings within each locality to connect children’s learning across the year enabling greater focus on how to support transitions. A number of settings across four localities communicated the impact of this provocation in helping them reflect. Settings across four localities to meet online in ‘practice worth sharing’ session. Beyond this, an increasing number of settings are considering re-instigating practice that took place pre-pandemic including home visits. • Across Session 2023-24, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PAThS) training was facilitated by Barnardo’s and attended by 27 colleagues from 21 settings (27%). Presently, 33 settings have access to PAThS materials. (42%). This programme enables all children to develop the fundamental social and emotional learning skills which will enable them to make positive choices throughout life. • Increasingly effective collaboration across Health/ Educational Psychology/ Early Years is leading to shared understanding of roles and responsibilities within GIRFEC model in practice by each service. This is evidenced by the commitment of colleagues to secure shared understandings, mitigating tensions within practice and misunderstandings communicated within Child’s Plan meetings. • There has been considerable progress in understanding of Heads/ Managers in terms of their role and leadership of personalised support to in order to ensure that the needs of all children are met. This is evidenced by the emergence of measurable short-term outcomes within Child’s Plans (Education contribution) which is encouraging consistent focus on securing progress and, in turn, longer term outcomes, by key adults around the child. • Professional learning opportunities focused on leadership of inclusion are leading to greater awareness of what neuro-divergent learners need from the environment and adults around them to ensure they continue to make progress. This is evidenced by the commitment of colleagues across localities to be part of the solution, collaborating within ASN Early level Locality Networks. This is resulting in the emergence of greater understanding of staged intervention processes. This will be followed up within Session 2024-25, via focused CLPL, ‘Let’s talk about: Staged Intervention in the Early Years’. • Collaboration with Educational Psychology and colleagues across disciplines of Health is strengthening understanding of our discrete roles and responsibilities and the importance of multi-agency working in order to meet children’s needs. This has led to the initiation of ASN Early level Locality Networks, supporting key adults around the child to understand the need to be consistent in focusing on rights-based approaches and longer-term outcomes, recognising that the solutions lie within them. Across Session 2023-24, we have secured 74% participation. In addition to this, across three settings, full teams have engaged in four modules focused on raising awareness of neurodiversity and to consider the role of the actions of educator and environment to secure inclusive practices. Work in this area is beginning to improve approaches to inclusion and ensuring that the needs of all children are met.
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14 What are we going to do now? • Continue to support and challenge establishments to review and reflect on embedding nurturing approaches. Provide support to ensure an increased number of establishments pursue their ‘Our Children, Their Nurturing Education’ (OCTNE) accreditation. 50% of schools will be actively engaging with the OCTNE framework. 30 establishments will have achieved bronze level accreditation, including 2 ELCs, and 10 will have achieved silver. Ongoing work with the OCTNE Strategic Improvement Group to develop the best way of capturing pupil voice to demonstrate impact. • Continue to support establishments to embed trauma informed practices in order to ensure that the needs of all of our children and young people are supported effectively and appropriately. • Continue to work with our Mentors in Violence Prevention Development Plan to engage remaining schools in the programme and further enhance partnership approach. • Continue to establishments to pursue recognition through the Youth Scotland LGBTQ+ Award and develop Argyll & Bute’s own charter guidance. Continue to increase engagement in the National Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) CLPL resources. • Embed approaches to evaluating health and wellbeing in all establishments. • Develop our RRS assessor team to ensure that we can support all schools in engaging on their RRS journey. We are working towards 100% engagement in this award. • Build on the Planet Youth work through increased community engagement and upstream approaches. Awareness and engagement work will be developed through associated Primary Schools. • Develop guidance for schools to ensure that there is consistency in all establishments to supporting children and young people with English as an Ldditional language (EAL). • Establish a sharing good practice forum for teaching and learning with a focus on inclusion. • Audit our investment in pupil support assistants and additional support needs assistants and develop a means of measuring their impact on learning. • Embed the Addressing Non-Attendance (ANA) policy document/circular and training package. All schools will negotiate an attendance target for session 2024-25 with their link Education Manager and attendance will continue to be a standing item during Head Teacher meetings and Quality Improvement Team visits to schools. • Further staff knowledge of appropriate strategies and resources to use to ensure progression and achievement for all our learners through targeted interventions and approaches. • Continue to work with our corporate parenting partners on the actions outlined in The Promise. • Continue to use the national Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL) data to compare the progress of our care experienced pupils at P1,4,7 and S3 with the national picture, working with designated managers to target support, where appropriate to ensure that all of our CECYP are achieving and that there is no attainment gap between them and their non care-experienced peers. • Continue to provide targeted and universal support in order to reduce the rate of exclusions across the authority. • Education service has been successfully engaging with Motivation, Commitment and Resilience (MCR) Pathways and the service are considering how it can finance increasing the number of schools engaging to 6 over the period of this plan. As a result, Care-Experienced young people, and others facing disadvantage will engage with a proven means of enhancing their life chances. • Building on the work of the maximising attendance group our next steps will involve reconvening and refreshing the membership of the Transitions working group to review and implement ant required changes to our approaches and guidance. Following on from the raised awareness of SCERTS (Social Communication, Emotional Regulation and Transactional Supports) across the local authority, next steps include raising awareness of and supporting the effective adoption of the national measurement framework which seeks to recognise the breadth of achievement and success of children and young people across A&B including the new draft measurement framework developed by NAIT (National Autism Implementation Team) for our pupils with additional support needs.
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15 SECTION 3: Report on Progress and Impact 2023-24 Progress and Impact Scottish Attainment Challenge The Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) mission is to achieve equity of educational outcomes, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap. The SAC aims to raise the attainment of children and young people living in deprived areas, in order to close the equity gap. In April 2023, an Education Officer took up post in order to play a key role in leading our work in this area, supporting and challenging our schools to ensure a relentless focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap whilst raising the bar for all. In addition, our Education Support Officer for literacy and our Numeracy and Mathematics Lead have played a pivotal role is providing both universal and targeted support for schools as they work towards closing the poverty related attainment gap. Both of these posts are funded through Strategic Equity Funding (SEF) which forms part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and impact is closely monitored. Progress towards achieving the current stretch aims will be reported on later in 2024. Following school submissions on Progress and Achievement in October 2023 and February 2024, data was analysed against the stretch aims. Education Managers then conducted follow up conversations about the projected data with Head Teachers and Senior Leaders. This ensured a more rigorous and consistent approach with a clear focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap. The Argyll & Bute literacy and numeracy tables 4 and 5 illustrate the progress from the 2021 ‘post pandemic’ ACEL (Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels) collection, through the most recent ACEL collection in 2023 (published December 2023), to the Stretch Aim targets in place for 2023-24. The year-on-year trend in ACEL data has been positive; in the three-year period between 2021 and 2023 the overall proportions of primary school pupils achieving the expected levels in literacy had increased by 5.6 percentage points, while in numeracy there had been an increase of 7.19 percentage points. The percentage of Quintile 1 (most deprived) young people who achieved their expected CfE level has increased by 18.4% in literacy and 14.46% in numeracy between 2021 and 2023. In literacy, the attainment gap between young people from the most and least deprived areas of Argyll & Bute was 27 percentage points in 2022 and by 2023 this narrowed to 13.98 percentage points. Argyll & Bute’s target is to reduce the attainment gap to 11 percentage points by 2024. In numeracy, the attainment gap between young people from the most and least deprived areas of Argyll & Bute was 29 percentage points in 2021, and by 2023 this narrowed to 17.41 percentage points. Provisional data indicates that we are making very good progress towards achieving our overall stretch aim of 71% for literacy and 78% for numeracy for 2024. NIF Priority 3: Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people. Education Service Strategic Priority 3.1: We will address disadvantage and deprivation to close the attainment gap by analysing data to inform a strategic overview of attainment for disadvantaged groups across the Local Authority and allow effective, targeted interventions. Education Service Strategic Priority 3.2 - We will use a data and research informed approach to provide targeted support to establishments across the Authority.
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16 Table 4: Literacy (P1,4,7 Combined) and Stretch Aims Table 5: Numeracy (P1, 4, 7 Combined) and Stretch Aims Progress towards Argyll and Bute Stretch Aims for 1@SCQF 5, 1@SCQF 6 and Participation is collated in tables 6 and 7. The Secondary Attainment Meetings have ensured Head Teachers reflect with accountability on areas for improvement in attainment, on consistency in moderation and understanding standards and on ensuring an aspirational presentation policy which enables all pupils to achieve their potential. The attainment meetings template has proven an effective basis for improving reporting to members on individual school attainment at Area Committee. Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) ACEL Data June 2021 69% 58% 87% 29pp ACEL Data June 2022 73% 68% 86% 18pp Stretch Aims 2022-23 75% 74% 87.5% 13.5pp ACEL Data June 2023 76.19% 72.46% 89.87% 17.41pp Stretch Aims 2023-24 78% 73% 89.5% 16.5pp Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) ACEL Data June 2021 59% 48% 81% 33pp ACEL Data June 2022 62% 53% 80% 27pp Stretch Aims 2022-23 68.4% 60% 81.5% 21.5pp ACEL Data June 2023 67.58% 66.4% 80.37% 13.98pp Stretch Aims 2023-24 71% 70% 81% 11pp
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17 Table 6: School Leavers with 1 or more pass at SCQF Level 5 Table 7: School Leavers with 1 or more pass at SCQF Level 6 Whilst young people may be leaving school with no level 5 qualification they are leaving with other National Awards and wider achievement certification appropriate to their educational needs. Table 8: Participation Measure - 16–19-year-olds in Education, Training and Employment Overall Q1 Q5 Gap (Q1 –Q5) Baseline (Aug 2021) SDS Data 93.5% 90.6% 96.7% 6.1pp Confirmed SDS Data Aug 2022 93.9% 89.1% 95.5% 6.4pp Stretch Aims 2022/23 95% 91% 96.7% 5.7pp Confirmed SDS Data Aug 2023 95.6% 90.3% 98%* 7.7pp* Stretch Aims 2023/24 95.8% 90.5% 98.1% 7.6pp * Data suppressed by SDS – estimated at 98.0%, based on data for Qs 1-4, gap estimated at 7.7pp. Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) Baseline June 2021 87.91% 85.06% 96.77% 11.71pp Stretch Aims 2022/23 88.91% 86.06% 97% 10.94pp Confirmed Data for 2021/22 (Feb 2023) 89.26 % 80.33 % 98.04 % 17.71pp Stretch Aim 2023/24 91.5% 85% 99.25% 13.5pp Data at November 2023 91.69% 86.56% 100% 13.44pp Stretch Aims 2024/25 92.25% 87% 99.25% 12.25pp Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) Baseline June 2021 67.71% 62.07 % 90.32% 28.25pp Stretch Aims 2022/23 68.5% 62.72% 90.49% 27.77pp Confirmed Data for 2021/22 (Feb 2023) 62.41% 54.10% 80.39% 26.29pp Stretch Aim 2023/24 66.5% 57% 84% 27 pp Data at November 2023 70.21% 46.26% 93.47% 47.21pp Stretch Aims 2024/25 67.75% 60% 86.5% 26.5pp
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18 Average attainment in Tariff points by SIMD decile compared with National Data (at the end of S6, based on original S4 roll) – after appeals and Wider Achievement accreditation. The 2022-23 data in the graph above shows the average tariff points achieved by pupils in each of the ten Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) cohorts in Argyll and Bute compared with the National data. Argyll and Bute candidates in SIMD deciles 3, 5 and 9 are outperforming young people nationally. In SIMD deciles 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10, young people’s performance in Argyll and Bute is marginally below the average national level. In SIMD deciles 1 and 8, the performance of pupils in Argyll and Bute was in line with the national average. The overall trend in Argyll and Bute is almost identical to the national trend. Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) Support and challenge for schools around planning and use of PEF has been ongoing. Our Attainment Advisor has worked alongside our Education Officer across a number of primary and secondary schools in order to support at the planning and evaluation stages. We refresh our PEF guidance annually and our EO (SAC) has engaged with all schools in order to provide support and challenge as they evaluate progress and identify interventions and areas of focus for session 2024-25. Within the current round of school support visits, in relation to PEF planning, schools are being encouraged to consider more sustainable practices as we head into the final phase of this current Attainment Challenge. These include capacity-building in effective teaching and learning, leadership and nurturing schools. This links to national thinking and is emulated across local authorities. Use of data and evidence has been central to these conversations and schools report now feeling increasingly confident as a result of this engagement. At school level, PEF has been used to target a number of areas including: targeted support for literacy and numeracy learning and teaching initiatives to promote digital inclusion, support for pupil health and wellbeing, collaboration with third sector partners to support pupils and families facing specific barriers to school attendance and participation and initiatives to reduce the cost of the school day. May 2024 FYE outturn reported a £252,527 improvement in carry forward in comparison to May 2023. This represents an 84% spend at FYE. As PEF is reported on within a financial year and schools operate the budget through an academic year the committed costs and projections for further spend to August 2024 will indicate a further improvement in % spend. Using Data for improvement
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19 Progress and Achievement (P&A) area meetings continue following the P&A data collections / data pack issue in order to support senior leaders to analyse data and use it to inform planning for improvement. Data packs will be provided following the three key collection points to support this activity. The sessions were well attended with 40+ participants regularly attending the November & March meetings. These sessions are helping to build capacity of senior leaders and are supporting them to identify trends and gaps in their data and plan for improvement. To support HTs, particularly those with a teaching commitment, the 5 sessions have been opened up to all, rather than specific areas. Following feedback, it is intended to offer a number of open sessions in 2024/25 to accommodate HT availability. P&A Projections were further expanded to include all primary stages from October and secondary S3 from February. Two additional supports were developed to support teacher professional judgements around projections. The new local achievement targets for each stage, alongside a new Projection Matrix, supported increased confidence and consistency in the recording of accurate projections. Additional Literacy Overall chart / analysis was developed and included within the February data Pack to support the overview of this top-level ACEL measure. This is encouraging schools to ensure a sharper focus in this area. Early Years The Early Years Team piloted a model for nursery review across term 3, Session 2023-24. It is hoped that this will enhance existing quality assurance processes and will build capacity within pedagogical leaders towards validated self-evaluation and identifying priorities for improvement. We anticipate that the level of progress sustained will be evident within dialogue at follow up to the review, one year on. It is our intention that this will strengthen the quality of self-evaluation within settings and build confidence, reducing the number of settings ‘living for scrutiny’. Utilising the support from external partners such as Education Scotland and Dr Marion Burns, we have expanded our offer of high-quality professional learning based on research. In addition to external providers, bespoke sessions have been delivered by the Education Officer focussing on areas such as Self-evaluation: the key driver of improvement change (building a culture of collaborative self-evaluation, developing skills as an evaluative writer and documenting the cycle of improvement change). A considerable number of colleagues within settings who have engaged with the content of the CLPL catalogue, and those within the EY Team who have been involved in facilitation, are with increasing understanding of its importance in building a core foundation. This is leading to a greater understanding of strategic planning for adult learning which is evidenced by Heads/ Managers who, in turn, are paying attention to this within their own settings. The content and quality of our EY professional learning ‘offer’ has been commended by national contributors. Assessment and Moderation Training has been open to all teaching staff and senior leaders throughout the session to develop teacher professional judgement and an understanding of shared standards with a focus on writing. Authority wide moderation sessions in primary schools were developed and led by the EO for moderation. This involved ensuring there was a nominated lead/Quality Assurance and Moderation Support Officer (QAMSO) for each school to lead the training on the- inset day, organisation of CLPL for senior leaders and moderation leads, ensuring that appropriate groupings of schools were organised in relation to similar context, size and Gaelic medium and accessible resources and toolkits to support the sessions. Almost all practitioners took part in the November inset moderation activity/training and almost all reported improvement in their understanding of the Moderation Cycle and High-Quality Assessments (HQAs). Almost all Moderation Leads (including QAMSOs) felt supported and confident in delivering the Inset training, using the materials provided centrally. Following the moderation activity,70% of practitioners reported more confidence in planning HQAs, 80% reported more confidence in using effective LI and SC linked to Es/Os/Benchmarks. Before training 30% respondents reported that they created HQAs 2/3 times per year. After training almost all schools created HQAs. The number of users of the moderation platform has increased over 100%. In March 2023, 23 primary schools were using the moderation platform and almost all our primary schools are now engaging.60% of the current QAMSOs took part in refresh training offered by Education Scotland September - November 2023, developing a shared understanding of standards. 6 new QAMSOs were trained by Education Scotland (4 primary and 2 secondary). 4 Secondary and 4 Primary QAMSOs engaged with Education Scotland’s moderation project.
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20 What are we going to do now? • Support and challenge schools to raise attainment for all pupils and close the poverty related attainment gap, through analysis of data, improved learning, teaching and assessment and effective use of resources (including Pupil Equity and Scottish Attainment Challenge Funding). Support and challenge schools to use ‘lenses’ most appropriate to their context when gathering and analysing data. • Continued intensive support from the central team for schools identified as having low attainment and/or a significant gap between pupils residing in quintile 1 and quintile 5. • School level stretch aims for literacy and numeracy will be established in partnership with Headteachers in order to ensure a relevant and sharper focus on attainment at individual school level. • Education Support Officer (ESO) for Literacy will continue to provide universal and targeted support for schools with a specific focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap. A range of data will be utilised and analysed in order to identify distinct areas of focus. • Literacy, numeracy and digital learning frameworks will be launched and associated professional learning delivered. These will support practitioners to plan progressive, focussed lessons and activities in these areas. • Continued delivery of the Improving Writing Programme (cohorts 5 and 6) with identified support for all GM establishments. • Continued support to previous cohorts with Improving Writing process. Analysis of writing data for 2024 will look at on-going impact of using the programme from cohorts 1 and 2. • Working with Early Years Team and Primary 1 practitioners to develop Primary 1/ early level literacy guidance/professional learning to ensure a consistent approach to high quality learning and teaching. • Central EY Team and Lead Practitioners across localities will undertake the Froebel in childhood practice certificate, University of Edinburgh. It is anticipated that the necessary engagement in practitioner enquiry and assignment will afford an important opportunity for team members to reconnect with practice, identifying one setting to engage with consistently as they work alongside children. • Across the coming year there will be a focus on ensuring a quality visit for every setting within each of the four localities. The Early Years team will analyse and discuss the findings from the visits, and this will inform follow up dialogue and challenge/support from the Early Years team. The ELC review programme will be expanded in order to review an additional 2 settings during 2024/25. • All schools will engage in authority led moderation activity on the November 2024 Inset day. This will be expanded to include a focus across P7/S1 transition with all secondary school English and Mathematics teachers being involved. This will help to strengthen transition and build approaches at cluster level that lead to improved sharing of assessment information and data in order to ensure that learners’ experiences are progressive across P7/S1 and that staff in both sectors have a clear understanding of what constitutes a robust teacher judgement. • Continue to adopt a more rigorous approach to tracking and monitoring the attainment of pupils within Gaelic Medium Provision in order to improve experiences and raise attainment and achievement of all children in Gaelic Medium Provision. • Continue to ensure that our Care Experienced children and young people are well supported and are attaining and achieving. Further refine approaches to monitoring and tracking attainment and achievement of this cohort of children and young people.
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21 SECTION 3: Report on Progress and Impact 2023-24 Progress and Impact • All schools continue to share a common column in their senior phase timetables thus ensuring access to greater flexibility and wider breadth of choice in our Senior Phase curriculum for young people. • The development of 20 online learning networked courses from UHI Argyll College are offered during the shared column to Senior Phase young people across all Secondary Schools. As a result, a greater number of young people have greater access to a wider range of senior phase courses. Ensuring equity of access regardless of location and size of home/base school. • 8 out of 10 Secondary Schools included Foundation Apprenticeships in their curriculum offer. These included Social Services to Children and Young people, Creative Digital Media, Business Skills, Engineering, Construction and Hospitality. As a result, young people have been given the option to study bespoke curriculum opportunities which relate directly to their specific post school destination goals. • The Senior Phase EO has started discussions with West College Scotland in terms of face-to-face provision for nearby schools Rothesay Joint Campus, Dunoon Grammar and Hermitage Academy. As well as online course offers which can be targeted for young people from all Secondary Schools across A&B. • Work to continue to increase college course offers continues, in relation to individual school demand as well as expansion of offer to all senior phase young people regardless of locality. As such, young people have greater access to wider curriculum opportunities in a range of subject areas. • Approximately 100 young people from across 6 of our Secondary Schools engaged with the University of West of Scotland Foundation Academy. This programme affords our young people with the opportunity to develop academic skills at University level. In June 2024 pupils from A&B will travel to the University of West of Scotland to experience a full day visit to the university campus. As a result, young people receive support and guidance in creating personal statements and support in accessing university pathways in a range of subjects. • In 2023-24, there were 36 Flexible Learning Plans (FLPs) in place for targeted young people across secondary schools. The FLP planning template has been reviewed and updated to ensure all prior attainment is considered, ASN and CECYP status is foregrounded, and the QA procedure around each FLP is recorded in a section at the end of the template. As a result, collaboratively planned, bespoke curricula for targeted young people are leading to increased engagement with education, and pathways to positive post-school destinations for those with the greatest barriers to achieving such destinations. • Work-based Vocational Learning opportunities for young people in the form of work placements continue to provide the most vulnerable and disengaged young people with engaging and personalised pathways towards positive destinations. All schools now systematically and consistently evaluate their provision of work- based vocational learning annually. As a result, the quality and personalised nature of work placements has developed and are recorded in the authority work placement database. • Employer engagement with young people has increased in 2023-34. As well as an increase in the number of work placements on 2022-23, the number of overall employer engagements with young people increased by 250%, and the number of employers with whom Education has partnerships increased by 70%, through the ongoing development of careers events and other employer engagement initiatives across schools. As a result, the opportunities for young people to develop skills for life and work as part of a wide and varied employability curriculum has increased across all secondary schools. • 16+meetings to enable multi-agency planning around ensuring positive destinations for school leavers most at risk are now a consistent and regular feature of practice in almost all secondary schools. Review and QA of 16+ meeting agendas and recording have resulted in schools, DYW and SDS intervening NIF Priority 4: Improvement in skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people. Education Service Strategic Priority 4.1: Through partnership working we will promote the development of skills, knowledge and understanding of learners to widen learning opportunities and career pathways for learners. Education Service Strategic Priority 4.2: We will further enhance our partnership with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) to ensure all young people have the opportunity and successfully develop the skills for life and work required to attain sustained, positive destinations post-school.
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22 appropriately to support young people into positive destinations, and also the tracking of leavers beyond school to allow intervention to support young people whose positive destinations have not been sustained. Wider Achievement Alongside National Qualifications, Argyll and Bute’s secondary schools offer an ever-increasing range of opportunities for wider achievement. Such opportunities develop skills for life and work, broaden young people’s range of experience, and are recognised by employers and further and higher education establishments as valuable indicators of young people’s attributes and capabilities. The Muir, Hayward and Withers reports all emphasise the importance of wider achievement for young people and stress the importance of parity of esteem between such qualifications and more traditionally academic range of qualifications. The table below summarises Wider Achievement across the authority’s secondary schools in 2022-23, which is broken down in more detail by the subsequent graphs. Achievement awards were gained at SCQF levels 3-7. • 97.5% of all entries in Wider Achievement gained an award. • Young people across Argyll and Bute gained a total of 1167 Wider Achievement Award in 2022-23. • The 2022-23 percentage pass rate for Wider Achievement at SCQF Level 5 or National 5 increased by 19.3% from 2021-22. • The 2022-23 percentage pass rate for Wider Achievement at SCQF Level 6 or Higher increased by 30.4% from 2021-22 Wider Achievement level # Passes # Entries % Pass Level 3 or unlevelled 26 26 100.0% Totals at SCQF 3 or other 26 26 100.0% N4 136 147 92.5% SCQF 4 144 149 96.6% Totals at SCQF 4 or Nat 4 280 291 96.2% SCQF 5 443 444 99.8% Nat 5 206 215 95.8% Totals at SCQF 5 or Nat 5 649 659 98.5% SCQF 6 182 186 97.8% Higher 26 26 100% Totals at SCQF 6 or Higher 208 212 98.1% SCQF 7 4 4 100.0% Total at SCQF 7 4 4 100.0%
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24 Positive Destinations Primary School BGE /Early Years Curriculum Development We were invited to be part of a national pilot programme working with Education Scotland Curriculum Innovation team. 4 primary schools (3 of which have Gaelic Medium) took part and progressed work in the areas of curriculum rationale and learner agency. 13 schools were also part of an A&B Curriculum Design Group in partnership with Education Scotland focussing on curriculum rationale. From feedback all participants from the Curriculum Design Group agreed/strongly agreed that their knowledge, confidence, skills and understanding of curriculum design had increased and would implement their learning in practice. Using the curriculum survey from May 23 and review of SIPs 23/24, 70% of schools who had highlighted elements of curriculum and or rationale development have engaged with curriculum design/rationale professional development this session. 62% of those who responded to the survey as not having a curriculum rationale or who had not reviewed their rationale in the last 5 years have engaged with curriculum design/rationale professional development this session. A further group of primary school (ELC) HTs and senior leaders have been involved in professional development with Dr Marion Burns and Lynn Taylor around leadership of early years pedagogy (0-8) and a child centred curriculum. In total, 19 primary schools with ELCs took part in these sessions with participants engaging in practitioner enquiries that will be shared at the beginning of session 24/25. All primary schools with ELCs who have not participated will be invited to join the 24/25 sessions. All of this work is culminating in improvements at school and setting level in terms of the quality and relevance of the curriculum on offer. The work around 0-8 pedagogy is helping to strengthen practice within schools and settings in order to ensure progression and improved experiences for all children. What are we going to do now? • Refine approaches to tracking of young people’s pathways within school and in the period after leaving school to ensure appropriate support, guidance and opportunities are in place to gain and sustain positive destinations. • Increased focus on acquisition of skills and access to personalised learning pathways to support learners to develop all four capacities and become global citizens. • We will continue our support for schools in their collation and analysis of, and response to, rich and relevant sources of data, to allow the identification of attainment issues for groups and individuals, and the implementation of positive interventions to increase attainment. This will be achieved through consultation around and implementation of attainment of poverty-related stretch aims, the provision of further high-quality professional learning opportunities in the analysis and response to attainment data and support for schools in the effective use of SAC and PEF. • Support and challenge schools and settings to design a curriculum which is meaningful, relevant and meets the needs of all learners. • Audit of curriculum rationales in primary and secondary schools and SIPs 24/25 will be used to identify schools who have highlighted or require further development of rationales. Further support will be given to secondary schools in order to engage with work in this area. • We will continue to work with Education Scotland and other partners to support curriculum design, working with senior leaders. This will be a joined-up approach with the Early Years team to ensure a coherent approach to curriculum design across settings and through a young person’s learning journey. • Further use of the Northern Alliance (NA) curriculum rationale toolkit and the NA curriculum leadership group to share best practice, resources and professional learning. Leavers’ Positive Destinations (Initial) Argyll &Bute Virtual Comparator Northern Alliance National 2022-23 95.3 96.4 95.1 95.9 2021-22 96.4 96.2 95.4 95.7 2020-21 95.0 96.0 95.3 95.5
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25 • Broaden and improve work-based vocational learning opportunities for young people, improving vocational educational provision in schools and developing strong partnerships with employers and agencies who can contribute to the development of young people’s skills and prospects. • Continue to support schools to further develop approaches to tracking wider achievement and ensure all young people have high quality opportunities for achievement that are recognised and celebrated in school. • Primary STEM Development Officer (PSDO) will continue to deliver targeted and universal support across the authority in order to develop STEM skills in our children and young people. • Formation of Outdoor Learning development group including senior leaders, practitioners and partners by September 24. We will engage in a project with University of Glasgow during session 2024-25. This will support an investigation into attitudes and impact on wellbeing from outdoor learning. This will initially focus on early years but will support development of A&B’s rationale for Outdoor Learning 0-18. • Increase the Motivation, Commitment and Resilience (MCR) Pathways Programme to include 6 secondary schools in 2024/25. This programme will help to improve outcomes and life chances for targeted young people and support them to reach a positive sustained destination. • Provide opportunities for S6 students to attend the Foundation Academy in partnership with the University of the West of Scotland. This offers a range of courses at SCQF 7 in order to help young people prepare for university and embark on learning to prepare for a degree programme.
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26 SECTION 3: Report on Progress and Impact 2023-24 Progress and Impact Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels Chart and tables below indicate attainment of Curriculum for Excellence levels at June 2023 for children and young people in P1,4,7. This data was submitted to Scottish Government in September 2023 and published in December 2023. Whilst attainment for each of the literacy organisers increased overall, we were still sitting under the national average. Targeted work has taken place this year in order to further develop capacity at school level in the analysis and use of data for improvement. The ESO for Literacy and our Numeracy Lead have also undertaken a variety of universal and targeted work as detailed under NIF priority 5. Education Managers and members of the central team have been working with schools in order to establish areas of concern and next steps. We are confident that the actions and follow up work that has taken place this session, has had a positive impact on attainment in both literacy and numeracy for session 2024/25. NIF Priority 5: Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy Education Service Strategic Priority 5.1: We will provide targeted support to schools to improve learning and teaching in order to improve outcomes for children and young people and develop systematic evaluation and sharing of high-quality materials and resources to support continuing professional development to support practitioners in addressing barriers and raising attainment in Literacy and Numeracy for our children and young people. Education Service Strategic Priority 5.2: We will track and monitor children and young people’s Literacy and Numeracy attainment, build capacity of senior leaders and practitioners in order to further develop their skills in data analysis to inform improvement. We will increase the use and range of data to improve outcomes for all children and young people. Education Service Strategic Priority 5.3: We will respond to and embrace educational reform in relation to approaches to inspection, curriculum development and qualifications.
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27 • 6pp improvement on P1/4/7 Literacy between 2022 and 2023 and 9pp improvement between 2021 and 2023. • 3pp improvement in P1/4/7 Numeracy between 2022 and 2023 and 7pp improvement between 2021 and 2023. • Nationally, 73% of P1/4/7 pupils achieved their expected CfE levels in Literacy and in 80% in Numeracy. S3 Achievement of Literacy and Numeracy Levels For S3 pupils, comparisons cannot be made to 2020/21 as the data was not collected. Compared to 2018/19: • S3 Literacy (Third level or better) has improved by 2pp when compared to 2019 ACEL. • S3 Numeracy (Third level or better) has declined by 8pp when compared to 2019 ACEL.
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28 Compared to 2018/19: • S3 Literacy (Fourth level) has increased by 1pp when compared to 2019 ACEL. • S3 Numeracy (Fourth level) has reduced by 5pp when compared to 2019 ACEL. The table above displays the attainment across all organisers at 3rd level or better for S3 pupils. Whilst attainment in literacy overall at 3rd and 4th levels has improved by 2 and 3 pp respectively from 2021-22, it still sits below the national average. Attainment in numeracy at 3rd and 4th levels has decreased by 2pp and 1pp respectively compared with 2021-22 and is below the national averages. Provisional data at authority level indicates significant improvements in this area for 2023-24.
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29 Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy at Levels 4, 5 and 6 Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels 4 and 5 Literacy and Numeracy are achieved via the passing of National 4 or 5 English or Maths, or through the completion of separate Literacy and Numeracy units at levels 4 and 5 which do not require an examination. Literacy (cumulative attainment by the end of S6, based on original S4 roll) Literacy SCQF Levels 5 and 6 – school leavers In 2023 attainment of Level 4 Literacy stands at 94.5%, 2% higher than the 2022 figure, and represents an increasing trend over the last three years. This figure is 0.4% below the Virtual Comparator (VC), with the gap between Argyll and Bute and the VC having reduced by over 2% in the last year. Attainment of Level 5 Literacy stands at 81.9%, a reduction of 0.5% on the 2022 figure. This figure is 2.2% below the VC, the gap with the VC having closed by 1% since 2022. As part of Attainment Meetings with individual secondary Head Teachers, key steps are being discussed to improve Literacy attainment in all secondary schools. Principal considerations relate to four key principles of raising attainment: a culture of high expectations underpinning aspirational presentation policies within schools; rigorous tracking and monitoring of pupils’ attainment in Literacy at frequent, regular intervals; frameworks of supportive intervention for pupils achieving below their potential in Literacy; and high-quality, learner-centred learning and assessment experiences in literacy across the curriculum continuing into the Senior Phase. In 2023, by the end of S6 or before, 52.4% of young people in Argyll and Bute had attained Level 6 Literacy, which represents a reduction of 2.9% on the 2022 figure. Attainment is 4.3% below the VC figure, the same gap as in 2022, indicating that attainment at Level 6 Literacy fell nationally in 2023.
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30 Numeracy (cumulative attainment by the end of S6, based on original S4 roll) Numeracy SCQF Levels 5 and 6 – school leavers In 2023, attainment in Numeracy at SCQF level 4 fell by 2.59% from 2022, which reflected a similar fall in the virtual comparator. Numeracy attainment in Argyll and Bute at SCQF Level 5 also fell slightly, by 1.77% to 69.03%, while the virtual comparator fell by 2.88% on the 2022 figure. As with Literacy, as part of Attainment Meetings with individual secondary Head Teachers, key steps are being discussed to improve Numeracy attainment in all secondary schools. Principal considerations relate to the same four key principles of raising attainment: a culture of high expectations underpinning aspirational presentation policies within schools; rigorous tracking and monitoring of pupils attainment in Numeracy at frequent, regular intervals; frameworks of supportive intervention for pupils achieving below their potential in Numeracy; and high-quality, learner-centred Numeracy learning and assessment experiences across the curriculum continuing into the Senior Phase. In 2023, 23.5% of Argyll and Bute young people achieved Level 6 Numeracy by the end of S6 or before. Attainment is 3.3% less than the VC, which also fell in 2023. Attainment of Care-Experienced Young People Care-Experienced Young People (CEYP) are supported to achieve to their maximum potential in literacy and numeracy, which often involves the overcoming of significant barriers. Targeted one-to-one support for CEYP is provided both within schools and, when necessary, in the settings out with schools which best suit the young people’s needs. The Virtual Headteacher (VHT) tracks and monitors our CECYP as if they attended one school and is currently developing a tracking and monitoring system specifically for this cohort. The medium term intended outcome is to have breadth and depth of data for each learner as they progress through their educational journey, leading to early intervention. The long term intended impact is to identify and address themes, ensuring required interventions are specific and personalised to individual children and young people.
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31 The following attainment data relates to care experienced learners across Argyll and Bute. This data demonstrates the attainment picture for care experienced learners across all stages. Progress and Achievement Data in Literacy and Numeracy at June 2023 for 207 pupils between P1 and S3 was as follows: Stage LT % Read % Write % Numeracy % P1 achieved early (AE) 44 33 33 40 P2 (AE) working towards first 74 63 47 63 P3 (AE) working towards first 100 100 100 100 P4 achieved first (AF) 59 35* 24** 29*** P5 (AF) working towards second 75 72 69 69 P6 (AF) working towards second 91 86 82 86 P7 achieved second (AS) 83 74 52 57 S1 (AS) working towards third 72 67 56 72 S2 (AS) working in third and fourth 69 62 65 50 S3 achieved third level 67 67 67 63 S3 achieved fourth level 30 33 30 13 For information: to achieve the level in Literacy, 3 components must be achieved at that level – listening and talking/reading/writing. It is worth noting the percentage of children in P4 are on the cusp of achieving first level: * 40% on cusp ** 47% on cusp *** 47% on cusp. Senior Phase attainment (CECYP) A B C Pass D National 4 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 100.00% 0.00% National 5 8.99% 25.84% 25.84% n/a 22.47% Higher 4.55% 4.55% 22.73% n/a 31.82% Advanced Higher 0.00% 100.00% 0.00% n/a 0.00%
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32 Authority National 4 results for all learners are above the national average by 12% and we have maintained a 100% pass rate for this session. 5.8% of pupils between S4-S6 were not presented for exams, this is less than 4 learners. There are specific reasons for this which include obtaining qualifications at an appropriate level and following a personalised curriculum. Literacy Applications of Mathematics Mathematics Level 4 100% 100% 100% Level 5 A-C 85.7% 50% (B-C) A-D 100% 66% (C-D) Combined Level 4 and 5 (A-C) pass rate = 91.7%. Our target was 65%. Combined Level 4 and 5 (B-C) pass rate = 69%. Our target was 60%. It should be noted that a small number of CECYP achieved National 3 levels qualifications in literacy and numeracy. 61.5% of learners who were presented for Higher/Advanced Higher achieved grades A – D, 31% achieved grades A – C. Positive feedback has been shared with our CECYP from the VHT as appropriate. This includes learners who may not have achieved the results they hoped for but were recognised for their determination and offered support to identify next steps. Senior Phase Attainment As presented to the Committee in August 2023, the SQA attainment results for pupils in academic year 2022-23 are outlined in the following table: • Our National 4 pass rate is 100% for the 8th year in succession. This is 12.20% above the 2023 national measure of 87.80%. • Our National 5 A-C pass rate has reduced by 2.50% on 2019. It is below the 2023 national measure for National 5 by 1.87%. • Our Higher A-C pass rate is above 2019’s figure by 3.93%. Argyll and Bute’s A-C Higher pass rate is above the 2023 national measure by 0.02%. • Our Advanced Higher A-C pass rate is above 2019’s figure by 3.77%. Argyll and Bute’s 2023 A-C Advanced Higher pass rate is marginally below the 2023 national measure by 0.36%.
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33 Literacy support for schools The Literacy Education Support Officer (ESO) working with the Children and Young People’s Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC) has delivered training and ongoing support to practitioners to improve pedagogy and use of data to secure improvement in writing at first level and across first and second in multi composite classes. Two teachers who have been involved in the programme are also supporting the delivery and support for the programme to ensure a sustainable model of improvement is developed. Cohort 4 schools on Mull have now completed training and have been delivering quality improvement in writing. 23 primary schools have now taken part in the Improving Writing Programme using Quality Improvement methodology. This initially was aimed at 1st level writing. This has now been developed to be taken forward in multi composite classes and across 1st and 2nd level. Impact on wiring attainment: In Cohort 1: an average of 21-point increase from attainment at P4 in June 22 and June 23 In Cohort 2: an average of 2-point increase from attainment at P4 in June 22 and June 23 In Cohort 3 and 4 combined there has been an increase in the number of children assessed by teachers as on track in writing from P3 to P7. After analysis of data. 2 schools have been identified where there has not been the expected impact from the programme. Further support will go to these schools and a further analysis of data and implementation of the QI process. In feedback all staff involved agree/strongly agree that this has improved writing within their class. In almost all cohorts of children there has been an improvement in writing attainment. A full evaluation of impact on writing will be completed when 2024 ACEL data is confirmed. Further universal training has been delivered online for practitioners to support improvements in writing and 3 pilot schools have been supported to implement Talk4Writing. In almost all P1, 4 and 7 classes there has been an improvement in writing attainment from June 22 ACEL data to predicted attainment for 2024. A full evaluation of impact will be completed when 2024 ACEL data is confirmed. Literacy CLPL sessions throughout the session have been delivered to 40 practitioners. Probationer literacy sessions were delivered by the ESO in October and January in order to develop knowledge of how to deliver high quality experiences. A practitioner working party led by ESO has developed A&B progression frameworks and planners. These have been quality assured by Education Scotland and all primary Headteachers given information and dates for training to support use. These frameworks and planners will be piloted with a primary school in session 24/25 and shared with establishments and will be accessible through the A&B GLOW site. Early Years Support By creating partnerships with ELC providers and external agencies we organise and facilitate quality experiences for our families within each of the four localities of Argyll and Bute. These are influenced by the culture within each community and the unique spaces surrounding them. Through leading learning together with families, we emphasise the positive impact that quality engagement can have for our youngest learners, building on and celebrating the interactions and mutual growth that can happen as a result our interactions. To date the Early Years and Family Support Workers have delivered 156 community sessions tailored to meet the needs within each locality. Sessions include Buggy Walks, Bookbug, PEEP, Get Me Talking, Play on Pedals, Sensory, Health and Wellbeing/advice, Toilet Training and Schematic Play. The sessions adapt and respond to the feedback from families and identified needs within each locality. The significant increase in community engagement is promoting continuity within community and supporting transitions between services. Feedback from parents confirms the importance of the sessions for equity of experiences due to both rurality and financial pressures. The sessions deliver a focused approach with sharing key messages with regards to early language development and offer strategies and advice within a supportive space. Through conversations, observations and written feedback there has been a substantial increase of confidence with the majority of parents that attend the groups. There has been sustained engagement by families in each locality. The Early Years and Family Support Workers will continue to skilfully balance the Early Years priorities. In response to requests from working parents on several of Argyll and Bute’s Island communities, the Early Years Team introduced a Childcare Pilot to provide purchase- able childcare which would enable parents to access work or study. Currently operating within 3 island communities and utilising available space and staffing within our existing ELC units, to date the pilot has supported 12 families on rural islands to purchase non-statutory ELC and wrap around care for their 2- and 3-year-old children. The project will continue to support parents within rural communities to access work and training.
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34 Numeracy Support for Schools Counting on Excellence was established to address underachievement and gaps in attainment. The main aim of the project is to enable good progress throughout Early, First and Second level for all children by developing firm foundations in the understanding of key mathematical concepts, as well as increase the percentage of children achieving age-expected levels in maths. In order to achieve this, the project has been set out to deliver a comprehensive and thoroughly researched CLPL package alongside curriculum guidance documentation. The package promotes best practice in maths teaching and learning and aims to enhance teachers’ subject knowledge by equipping them with developing a deep, conceptual understanding in all areas of mathematics, thereby enabling them to support all their pupils to reach their full potential. Unlike a scheme of work, Counting on Excellence was designed as a comprehensive and progressive CLPL package comprising of various complementary activities which aimed to build teachers’ subject knowledge and their confidence and use of resources in the classroom. 2023/24 Activities: Outcome 1: Enhanced pedagogy: The maths and numeracy intervention has led to the development of a robust framework that supports teachers in enhancing their pedagogical approaches. This framework emphasizes progression, breadth, depth, and challenge in mathematics education. Outcome 2: Quality assurance: Significant time has been invested in writing and quality assuring the framework to ensure its effectiveness. The bulk of the intervention's time has been dedicated to refining and ensuring the quality of the framework, which will be available for schools from August. Outcome 3: Targeted school support: Two schools have been supported in improving numeracy and mathematics teaching and learning through the intervention. This support is ongoing into the next session, indicating a sustained commitment to improving educational outcomes. Two further schools have been supported through a mathematics thematic inspection- one school has received positive Outcome 4: Comprehensive professional learning: A comprehensive package of Continuous Learning and Professional Learning (CLPL) has been developed and planned to be delivered in the next session. This includes 25 twilight sessions as a universal offer to all schools, with two face-to-face sessions specifically tailored for HALCO schools. The high level of participation from schools indicates strong engagement and commitment to enhancing teaching practices. Impact measurement: The impact of the intervention is measured through staff surveys and assessments of pupil attainment and learning conversations. This multi-faceted approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of the intervention's effectiveness both at the teacher and student levels. Learning, Teaching and Assessment Our Learning, Teaching and Assessment framework has been shared with all schools to support a consistent approach to the delivery of high-quality learning experiences. With initial work from a Learning and Teaching working party and the appointment of EO for learning and teaching, the GAPE resources have been developed to align with the framework. The programme has been piloted with 7 identified schools. Universal CLPL in Learning, Teaching and Assessment for practitioners has been developed and dates agreed for the CLPL calendar next session. The requirements for intensive support for an identified establishment and the allocation of 0.4fte of the EOs time to work with the NA has impacted on the on-going GAPE work and general school support. The pilot schools will be supported to continue work with GAPE and new schools will be identified through self-evaluation with next cohort to start in September 2024. Newly appointed ESO 0.6fte will work 0.4 fte with the Northern Alliance to support identified schools (approx 4 schools will be identified from Aug 24) using the NA resources and toolkits. This will also include the EO gathering good practice across the authority for sharing on the NA platform. Northern Alliance held an on-line Learning, Teaching and Assessment session focussing on what constitutes ‘high quality’ and this was attended by the majority of A&B Headteachers. This involved an on-line professional dialogue session to inform next steps for the RIC. Out with our school review programme, members of the extended central team have undertaken learning and teaching observations across 38 schools. The key themes and findings were fed back to Head Teachers, Education Managers and Officers. This evidence has then helped to inform follow up targeted support and CLPL.
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35 The Scottish Civic Trust ‘My Place’ Photography Competition is an annual national competition that encourages young people to use photography to explore the buildings, architecture and archaeology in the places they live. Sydney Vipurs from Gigha Primary School, Argyll and Bute won the Primary-age category for their photograph ‘Gigha Past & Present’. What are we going to do now? • Further development of activities and support to ensure effective moderation of standards in literacy and numeracy to ensure consistency across establishments. • Continue to build capability and capacity of senior leaders and teachers in schools in the use of tracking and monitoring tools including Insight, NSA data and the BGE Benchmarking Tool and the ability to interpret data and identify areas of need for individuals and groups of learners. • Further Implement the refreshed Guided Approaches to Pedagogical Enquiry (GAPE) programme. Schools and settings will be supported to develop staff knowledge and skill in utilising a range of pedagogical approaches to ensure consistently high-quality experiences for all learners. • Schools and settings will be supported to develop meaningful approaches to outdoor learning with a focus on literacy and numeracy. • Numeracy lead and PT will deliver targeted and universal support for planning, delivery and assessment of aspects of numeracy and mathematics. Literacy ESO will continue to offer CLPL, support and guidance to schools. • Support quality, coherence and progression across early level learning and teaching. • Major focus on Learning, Teaching and Assessment at September Headteacher Conference with high profile presenters.
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36 SECTION 4: Education Service Strategic Plan 2024-26 The plan lists the expected outcomes and impact under the National Improvement Framework priorities and demonstrates links to the Argyll and Bute Corporate Pan 2023-2027 and the Education Service Vision and Strategy, ‘Our Children, Their Future, which will be refreshed during session 2023-24. It builds on progress made during session 2023-24 and identifies high level areas for improvement and outlines the actions we will take to achieve the expected impact and outcomes. The purpose of the strategic plan is to support and guide individual settings, schools and services in planning for improvement, not to prescribe what those improvements should be or how they should be taken forward. Full details of improvement activity and expected impact for each team within the Education Service will be contained within each internal team plan. NIF PRIORITY 1: Placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of education NIF Driver A&B Education Service Vision and Strategy Corporate Plan 2023- 27 Priorities Expected Outcome/Impact Improvement Activity Performance Measures/Evidence of impact Teacher and practitioner professionalism Parent/carer involvement and engagement • Ensure children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. • Raise educational attainment and achievement for all • Working to improve and secure equity of specialist provision across Argyll and Bute by addressing gaps where they exist across the education estate. • Maintaining the current staffing complement who support this work, in line with our nurture stretch aim agreed with Scottish Government. • A positive, inclusive, rights- based culture in all services, settings and schools where diversity is celebrated, and social justice is realised. • A workforce and communities who are committed to the rights of children and young people. • Enhanced partnership working that is centred around the rights of the child and that leads to increased number of schools and settings achieving Rights Respecting status. • Increased number of schools and settings receiving national recognition for work on diversity including LGBTQ+ • Children and young people who are empowered and feel that their voices and opinions are listened to, valued and acted upon. • Approaches to Learning for Sustainability are embedded and staff are knowledgeable and confident in this area. • Continue to support schools on their journey to becoming a ‘Rights Respecting School’. • Provide high quality professional learning opportunities for school leaders and practitioners to encourage policy development and partnership working. • Strengthen partnership working with a range of services including third sector organisations in order to ensure that the Children’s Rights agenda underpins the work of our schools and services. • Further develop approaches to promoting and celebrating diversity through partnership working and supporting schools to obtain national recognition for their work in this area. • Strengthen approaches to capturing and acting on the voice and opinions of children and young people. • Provide opportunities for staff to develop their skills and knowledge in order that LfS is embedded across the curriculum. • Number of schools and settings with RRS status • Evaluation comments from professional learning opportunities • Questionnaire responses from thematic reviews, school reviews and external scrutiny. • Number of schools and settings who have achieved accreditation and/or recongition for work related to diversity and/or social justice. • School Improvement Plans • Standards and Quality Reports • School review findings/reports • HMIe inspection reports/national thematic visits. • School self evaluation evidence against key Q.Is
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37 NIF Priority 2: Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing. NIF Driver A&B Education Service Vision and Strategy Corporate Plan 2023-27 Priorities Expected Outcome/Impact Improvement Activity Performance Measures/Evidence of Impact Teacher and practitioner professionalism Parent/carer involvement and engagement Curriculum and assessment School and ELC improvement Performance information • Ensure children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. • Ensure high quality partnership working and community engagement. • Raise educational attainment and achievement for all. • Reducing the number of children and young people who have to travel out with the area to access services by enhancing provision where gaps currently exist. • Working to improve and secure equity of specialist provision across Argyll and Bute by addressing gaps where they exist across the education estate. • Maintaining the current staffing complement who support this work, in line with our nurture stretch aim agreed with Scottish Government. • We will improve outcomes for our children and young people by: Improving educational attainment, achievement and outcomes for young people within Argyll and Bute to Scotland’s upper quartile. • Develop the next generation of capital investment plan and • An inclusive culture underpinned by the principles of GIRFEC which supports the health and wellbeing of all children and young people. • Trauma informed practices and nurturing approaches are embedded in order to ensure that children and young people are appropriately supported. • Approaches and systems that ensure identification and appropriate support for children and young people with additional support needs. • A curriculum which empowers and enables all children and young people to be successful, confident, responsible and effective in school, their work, their community and in the wider world and which supports them to meet their full potential. • An increase in the percentage of schools evaluated as ‘good’ or better for Q.I 3.1 Ensuring Wellbeing, Equality and Inclusion. • Embedded practice which supports aspirations of The Promise with a focus on attainment and wider achievement for our care experienced children and young people. • Continue to support and challenge establishments to review and reflect on embedding nurturing approaches and embed trauma informed practices. • Increase engagement across the authority in the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP Programme) and MCR Pathways programme. • Identify professional learning and work with partner agencies, to provide a wider range of experiences and opportunities for children and young people to achieve success. • Embed Addressing Non-Attendance (ANA) policy document/guidance and training package for all establishments. • Continue to ensure implementation of the national Additional Support for Learning review recommendations. • Support schools to ensure effective transitions for all learners and especially those with additional support needs. • In partnership with other corporate parents, continue to take forward the actions outlined in ‘The Promise’ and GIRFEC refresh. • Continue to use a range of data to track our care experienced pupils against the national picture. • Continued monitoring of attendance, exclusion, bullying and racism data. Follow up support and challenge for • Uptake and evaluations for professional learning opportunities • Feedback from MVP programme • MCR Pathways data: attendance, participation, confidence, wellness, retention rates and leaver destinations. • Attainment and achievement data for children and young people with additional support needs • Parent/carer feedback • Sampling of pastoral notes, CP files, child’s plan’s, CSPs etc • Attendance, exclusion, bullying, racist incident data from SEEMiS. • HMIe Inspection reports • Authority school and thematic review reports and evidence. • Attainment and achievement data for CECYP • School Improvement Plans/Standards and Quality Reports • Pupil feedback and questionnaires • PAG group minutes • Youth Voice evidence • Data evidencing progress towards ‘plus’ stretch
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38 priorities for our school estate. • All pupils experience a smooth transition from nursery to primary, primary to secondary and from secondary school to a positive and sustained destination. • Maintain and where possible improve upon the already low exclusions and improve attendance rates in our schools, especially for care-experienced children and young people. • Maintain and where possible reduce the number of children and young people reporting they experience bullying and/or racist behaviour. • Appropriate provision within localities for children and young people with additional support needs schools. Prevention activities and support/professional learning for settings. • Rollout of new learning centre provision within localities
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39 NIF Priority 3: Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people. NIF Driver A&B Education Service Vision and Strategy Corporate Plan 2023-27 Priorities Expected Outcome/Impact Improvement Activity Performance Measures/Evidence of Impact Curriculum and assessment School and ELC improvement Performance information School and ELC leadership Teacher and practitioner professionalism • Ensure children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. • Raise educational attainment and achievement for all. • Use performance information to secure improvement for children and young people. • Strengthen leadership at all levels. • We will improve outcomes for our children and young people by: Improving educational attainment, achievement and outcomes for young people within Argyll and Bute to Scotland’s upper quartile. • Educational Attainment and Wider Achievement – Developing the use of all the available data and intelligence on each of our educational establishments. to focus on and drive improvement, achieving our stretch aims (goals to improve opportunities and outcomes for young people) as agreed with the Scottish Government. • Improved literacy and numeracy attainment throughout the broad general education (BGE). • Improved attainment in the senior phase. • An improvement in the attainment of disadvantaged children and young people. • An increase in the percentage of schools evaluated as ‘good’ or better for Q.I 3.2 raising attainment and achievement. • An increase in activities which support prevention and early intervention, improve outcomes and reduce inequalities. • An improvement in the percentage of children reaching all of the expected developmental milestones on entry to primary school. • Increased capacity of staff at all levels to analyse data and use a range of data to inform improvement at school/classroom level. • Robust systems and data evidencing progress of each learner through the BGE and beyond. • Increase rigour around closing the poverty related attainment gap whilst remaining cognisant of the fact that there are small numbers of pupils in some cohorts. Look at alternative sources of data in order to target resources appropriately and obtain a rounded view of areas where there are gaps/room for improvement. • Support and challenge Secondary schools to refine and strengthen approaches to tracking and monitoring attainment within the BGE (S1-3) and Senior Phase with a clear focus on high aspirations and improved outcomes for all learners. • Continue to implement our Strategic Equity Funding Plan 2023-26 • Reflect on approaches to cluster working in order to capitalise on opportunities for collaborative. improvement to create shared standards, expectations and practice and ensure greater consistency. across the authority. • Explore further opportunities to collaborate and share practice with colleagues from other local authorities. • Further development of activities and support to ensure effective moderation of standards to ensure consistency across establishments. • Continue to build capacity of staff at all levels in the use of tracking and monitoring tools and the ability to interpret data and identify areas for • Attainment data/progress against meeting core and plus stretch aims. • Attainment data for BGE and Senior Phase learners including those who are care experienced, have additional support needs or are in key equity groups. • Developmental milestones data. • Uptake and evaluations for professional learning opportunities • Parent/carer feedback • Sampling of child’s plans, CSPs etc • Attendance, exclusion, data from SEEMiS. • HMIe Inspection reports • Authority school and thematic review reports and evidence. • School Improvement Plans/Standards and Quality Reports • Pupil feedback and questionnaires
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40 improvement for individuals and groups. • Support quality, coherence and progression across early level learning and teaching. • Further develop staff skill, knowledge and confidence across all establishments in using technologies to remove barriers to learning.
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41 NIF Priority 4: Improvement in skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people NIF Driver A&B Education Service Vision and Strategy Corporate Plan 2023- 27 Priorities Expected Outcome/Impact Improvement Activity Performance Measures/Evidence of Impact School and ELC leadership School and ELC improvement Performance information Curriculum and assessment • Equip young people to secure and sustain positive destinations and achieve success in life. • Ensure high quality partnership working and community engagement. • Raise educational attainment and achievement for all. • Use performance information to secure improvement for children and young people. • Developing a broader curriculum offer to augment current opportunities with a range of wider achievement awards and accreditations. This will have a positive impact on leaver destinations through inclusive, skills-based programmes in each secondary school. • We will improve outcomes for our children and young people by: Improving educational attainment, achievement and outcomes for young people within Argyll and Bute to Scotland’s upper quartile. • Educational Attainment and Wider Achievement – Developing the use of all the available data and intelligence on each of our educational establishments to focus on and drive improvement, achieving our stretch aims (goals to improve opportunities and outcomes for young people) as agreed with the Scottish Government. • A culture of ambition and achievement in every school. • An improvement in sustained school leaver destinations. • Increased range of partnerships with local businesses and community organisations leading to enhanced opportunities for learners. • An increase in the number of school leavers with well- developed employability skills. • Increased opportunities for children and young people to recognise and celebrate personal achievements. • An increase in the confidence and ability of children and young people to discuss skills and career pathways. • Increased vocational opportunities and pathways for learners within our secondary schools. • Increased capacity of staff and children/young people to employ digital approaches which are current and enhance learning and to deliver high quality STEM experiences. • Curricula celebrate and promote diversity, are de- colonised and inclusive. • Increased focus on acquisition of skills and access to personalised learning pathways to support learners to develop all four capacities and become global citizens. • Further develop approaches to tracking of young people’s pathways within school and in the period after leaving school to ensure appropriate support, guidance and opportunities are in place to gain and sustain positive destinations. • Increase in the available to all young people. • Broaden and improve different curriculum pathways and opportunities including work-based vocational learning opportunities for all young people, improving vocational educational provision in schools and developing stronger partnerships with employers and agencies. • Support and challenge schools to design a curriculum which is relevant, engaging and meets the needs of all learners. • Continue to support schools to further develop robust approaches to celebrating and tracking wider achievement. • Further develop targeted and universal support on aspects of STEM curriculum. • Initial and sustained school leaver data • Annual Participation Measure Data • Attainment data/progress against meeting core and plus stretch aims. • DYW team tracking data. • School based wider achievement and participation data. • School curriculum structures and rationales. • Uptake and evaluations for professional learning opportunities • Parent/carer feedback • Attendance, exclusion, bullying, racist incident data from SEEMiS. • HMIe Inspection reports • Authority school and thematic review reports and evidence. • School Improvement Plans/Standards and Quality Reports • Pupil feedback and questionnaire responses. • Feedback from industry and business partners.
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42 NIF Priority 5: Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy NIF Driver A&B Education Service Vision and Strategy Corporate Plan 2023- 27 Priorities Expected Outcome/Impact Improvement Activity Performance Measures/Evidence of Impact School and ELC leadership Teacher and practitioner professionalism Parent/carer involvement and engagement Curriculum and assessment School and ELC improvement Performance information • Raise educational attainment and achievement for all. • Use performance information to secure improvement for children and young people. • Ensure children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. • Equip young people to secure and sustain positive destinations and achieve success in life. • We will improve outcomes for our children and young people by: Improving educational attainment, achievement and outcomes for young people within Argyll and Bute to Scotland’s upper quartile. • Educational Attainment and Wider Achievement – Developing the use of all the available data and intelligence on each of our educational establishments. to focus on and drive improvement, achieving our stretch aims (goals to improve opportunities and outcomes for young people) as agreed with the Scottish Government. • Continuing to promote the teaching and use of Gaelic as set out in the council’s emerging Gaelic Plan for 2023. • Improved attainment in the senior phase particularly in literacy and numeracy. • Improvement in the percentage of school leavers achieving level 5 and level 6 literacy and numeracy. • Improved literacy and numeracy attainment throughout the broad general education (BGE). • Increased capacity of senior leaders and teaching staff to analyse data and use a range of data to inform improvement at school/classroom level. • Learners develop core literacy and numeracy skills and are able to confidently apply these in other areas of the curriculum. • An increase in the number of schools being graded as ‘good’ or better for Q.I 2.3 Learning Teaching and Assessment and 3.2 Raising Attainment and Achievement. • Establishments and the Central Team work to engage in strategic planning, implementation and evaluation which promotes a culture of ambition and continuous improvement. • Formalise and proceed with planned approaches to share secondary school attainment data more widely and increase the level of challenge for schools in this area. Build staff capacity at all levels. • Further develop approaches to effective moderation of standards in literacy and numeracy to ensure consistency across establishments and A&B. • Implement Numeracy and Mathematics and Literacy frameworks and guidance. • Further develop universal and targeted literacy and numeracy support including high quality professional learning for schools and settings. • Schools and settings will be supported to develop staff knowledge and skill in utilising a range of pedagogical approaches to ensure consistently • Attainment data/progress against meeting core and plus stretch aims. • Literacy and Numeracy data for BGE and Senior Phase learners including those who are care experienced, have additional support needs or are in key equity groups. • School attainment papers and meetings. • Developmental milestones data. • Uptake and evaluations for professional learning opportunities • Parent/carer feedback • Sampling of child’s plans, CSPs etc • HMIe Inspection reports • Authority school and thematic review reports and evidence. • School Improvement Plans/Standards and Quality Reports • Pupil feedback and questionnaires • • Increased opportunities for young people to develop knowledge, understanding and the skills for life and active participation in a global multicultural society and Scotland’s place in it. • Support schools and settings to embed Learning for Sustainability as a key theme across their curriculum.
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43 • Ensure high quality partnership working and community engagement. • Strengthen leadership at all levels. • Staff are skilled in the planning, delivery and assessment of high-quality learning experiences in literacy and numeracy which are differentiated and ensure equity. • All children and young people are provided with engaging experiences which enable them to meet their full potential. • A curriculum which ensures that literacy and numeracy skills are developed through other curricular areas. • Staff are skilled in planning and delivering IDL opportunities which provide opportunities for children and young people to develop and apply literacy and numeracy skills in new and unfamiliar contexts. • All children and young people are provided with meaningful outdoor learning opportunities in order to develop and apply literacy and numeracy skills. • Higher levels of parental engagement in their children’s learning and in the life of the school. Parents and carers will feel confident and able to fully support their children with aspects of literacy and numeracy learning. • Consistently high-quality experiences for all children and young people in Gaelic medium provision. high-quality experiences for all learners. • Schools and settings will be supported to develop meaningful approaches to outdoor learning with a focus on literacy and numeracy. • Support quality, coherence and progression across early level learning and teaching. • Support schools and services to provide opportunities for parents and carers to develop their own knowledge and skills in aspects of literacy and numeracy so that they are able to support their children confidently. • Further develop approaches to celebrate and promote diversity through languages and culture with a specific focus on Gaelic. Provide further support for schools in order to adopt Gaelic as their L2/L3. • Ensure greater quality and consistency in children’s experiences, attainment and achievement within Gaelic Medium Education across Argyll and Bute
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APPENDIX 1: 3 Year Stretch aims 2023-2026. In partnership with our Attainment Advisor, we have devised provisional stretch aims as detailed below. We will build on progress made this year by ensuring a relentless focus on closing the poverty related attainment gap whilst raising the bar for all. This will include universal and targeted support for schools based on their attainment data with the aim of building staff capacity at all levels. Literacy (P 1/4/7 Combined) Stretch Aim Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) Confirmed ACEL Data 2022 (DEC) 62.4% 53% 80% 27.4pp Interim Stretch Aim 2023/24 71% 70% 81% 11pp Final Stretch Aim 2025-26 76% 75% 85% 10pp Numeracy (P 1/4/7 Combined) Stretch Aim Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) Confirmed ACEL Data 2022 (DEC) 72.7% 68.1% 85.9% 17.8pp Interim Stretch Aim 2023/24 78% 73% 89.5% 16.5pp Final Stretch Aim 2025-26 83% 78% 91% 13pp
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45 School Leavers with 1 or more pass at ALL SCQF Level 5 Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) Confirmed Data 2021-22 (Feb 2023) 90.93% (VC 91.32%) 83.61% (VC 86.23%) 98.04% (VC 98.43%) 14.43pp Stretch Aims 2023/24 91.5% 85% 98.5% 13.5pp Interim Improvement between 2023 and 24 0.57pp 1.39pp 0.46pp 0.93pp Final Stretch Aim 2025/26 93% 89% 100% 11pp School Leavers with 1 or more pass at ALL SCQF Level 6 Overall SIMD Q1 SIMD Q5 GAP (Q1-Q5) Confirmed Data 2021-22 (Feb 2023) 65.99% (VC 69.37%) 54.10% (VC 59.05%) 82.35% (VC 92.75%) 28.25pp Interim Stretch Aims 2023/24 67% 57% 84% 27pp Interim Improvement between 2023 and 24 0.51pp 2.9pp 1.65pp 1.25pp Final Stretch Aim 2025/26 72% 64% 89% 25pp
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46 Participation Measure - 16–19-year-olds in Education, Training and Employment Overall Q1 Q5 Gap (Q1 –Q5) Confirmed SDS Data 2021-22 (Aug 2022) 93.9% 89.1% 95.5% 6.4pp Snapshot Data SDS May 2023 92.7% 87.1% 94.2% 7.1pp Confirmed SDS Data 2022-23 (Aug 2023) TBC TBC TBC TBC Interim Stretch Aims 2023/24 93.5% 89.5% 96% 6.5pp Interim Improvement between 2023 and 24 0.8pp 2.4pp 1.8pp 0.6pp Final Stretch Aim 2025/26 95% 92.5% 97% 4.5pp HWB – Attendance in Primary - Free School Meal registered and Non-Free School Meal Registered Overall FSM registered Non-FSM registered GAP (FSM/non-FSM) Confirmed Data May 2023 92.71% 88.86% 93.43% 4.57pp Interim Stretch Aims 2023/24 93.5% 89.5% 93.5% 4pp Interim Improvement between 2023 and 24 0.79pp 0.64pp 0.07pp 0.57pp Final Stretch Aim 2025/26 94.5% 92% 96% 4pp
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47 HWB – Attendance in Secondary - Free School Meal registered and Non-Free School Meal Registered Overall FSM registered Non-FSM registered GAP (FSM/non-FSM) Confirmed Data May 2023 88.33% 81.24% 89.46% 8.23pp Interim Stretch Aims 2023/24 90% 82% 89.5% 7.5pp Interim Improvement between 2023 and 24 1.67pp 0.76pp 0.04pp 0.72pp Final Stretch Aim 2025/26 92% 87% 94% 7pp