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A review has been called to investigate why school children in Hackney are still performing below the national average despite significant improvements over the last five years.
Hackney’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission will begin the review in the New Year to find out whether the borough’s primary schools can use methods and take advice from better performing schools in other areas.
Last week’s publication of SATS results by the Department of Education revealed that Hackney schools had once again improved, meaning that in the past five years there has been a 14 percent improvement across Maths and English.
However, the commission has been set up as schools in the borough are still marginally below the national average of 73.5 percent for children achieving level four, the expected level for pupils, in both English and Maths.
Hackney’s Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission will begin the review to find out whether the borough’s primary schools can use methods and advice from better performing schools in other areas.
In 2005/2006 Hackney primary schools were 13 percent behind the national average for English and Maths, however the new results show that the gap has closed to 3 percent.
One of the most dramatic improvements can be found at Grazebook Primary School in Stoke Newington, where 87 percent of all pupils currently gain at least Level 4 in English and Maths, compared with 61 per cent just two years ago. Similarly 89 percent of pupils at Kingsmead School are achieving Level 4+ compared with 65 percent in 2008 and at Gainsborough the figure now stands at 66 percent, a 15 percent increase over two years.
Steve Belk, Deputy Chief Executive of the Learning Trust, the group responsible for the running of all the educational services in Hackney, said: “The fact that we are the most improved education authority in the country over the past five years is something that everyone working in education in Hackney – teachers, support staff and others – should be immensely proud of.”
Organisers recognise the increase in attainment at Key Stage 2 and say that they want successful approaches to be “shared and embedded” within the boroughs schools.
The Commission wants to hear from parents, governors and teachers so that the review can be as thorough and inclusive as possible. If anyone would like to get in touch with organisers you can e-mail scrutiny@hackney.gov.uk for further information and to share your views.
