Northumberland schools are making good progress in improving educational outcomes - is the message from education leaders in the county this week.

 

The council has analysed data from the recently published Department for Education performance tables which shows that first and primary schools in particular are performing extremely well.

 

Outcomes show that Northumberland has moved to the position of highest performing local  authority in the north-east region for the measure known as  ‘Progress 8’* and 2nd best for ‘Attainment 8’**.  

 

The improvement in the number of five year old children achieving a good level of development by the end of the Reception year has been very strong, increasing by 10% over the last five years to 75%, which is above the national average.

 

The county’s overall position at Key Stage 1 compared with the national averages has improved over the last four  years in all subjects and Northumberland is now solidly above the national average.

 

Outcomes at Key Stage 2 have risen in 2019 for mathematics and for reading, writing and maths combined, and the county is now above or inline with the national averages in all three subjects. Progress across Key Stage 2 is broadly in line with the national average.

 

Councillor Wayne Daley, cabinet member for children’s services and deputy leader at Northumberland County Council said:  “These figures highlight numerous areas of improvement across primary and secondary sectors, which reflect the huge efforts of schools, and also the effectiveness and impact of our school improvement service. 

 

“I am delighted that there is an improving picture across Northumberland, but we are not complacent, and know that there is still a lot more work to do.

 

“Some of our secondary and high schools are doing very well against national benchmarking and some are doing extremely well in A level results, but we will be supporting and helping them to achieve even more in the future.

 

“With our ambitious investment of up to £150 million into school rebuilds and refurbishment, I have an absolute focus on making our county the best place to learn and a fantastic place for our teachers to develop their careers in buildings fit for the future."

 

*Progress 8 is a new measure of school performance. It replaces the previous measure of 5A*-C including English and maths, and shows how well pupils of all abilities have progressed, compared to pupils with similar academic starting points in other schools.

 

**Attainment 8 is a measure of a pupil's average grade across a set suite of eight subjects. Once calculated, this Attainment 8 score is compared to the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally with the same prior attainment at KS2 in order to calculate a pupils Progress 8 score.