All Wiltshire schools to have meetings about attendance
Children missing out on education one of priorities of new School Bill
Every Wiltshire school will have a meeting with education officers about attendance starting from this academic year according to plans discussed by councillors in the Children’s Select Committee yesterday.(20th September)
This comes after a new report from Head of Targeted Education for the council, Kathryn Davis, showed the number of Wiltshire children who are not getting a full-time education is still higher than it was two years ago.
The report says that the number of children with a reduced education provision agreement, which is an agreement between the parent and school where the number of hours spent in education is reduced, is currently 286 while in the period 2020-21 it was 194.
Wiltshire schools still behind national standards
The report also said Wiltshire schools’ academic standards are still behind the regional and national levels according to education watchdog, Ofsted.
The percentage of schools reaching good or outstanding ratings is 81.7%, which is below the national number of 87.7%. according to a report from the Head of School Effectiveness for Wiltshire Council, Lesley Lowe.
Mr Lowe’s report says: “The breakdown comparison between maintained schools and academies shows that the percentage of Good or Outstanding maintained schools is 2.2% lower than national, and Good or Outstanding Academies is 21.7% lower than National.”
School Bill
The number of children home educated is also higher than it was in the 2020-21 period according to the report.It is currently 766 while in 2020-21 it was 731.
Children missing out on education is one of the main priorities of the School Bill, announced in May this year, currently before parliament.
The meetings about attendance are part of Wiltshire Council’s reaction to the new bill.
As part of the bill, new legislation is being introduced to bring into force statutory guidance on attendance.
There will also be a requirement for creation of local authority administered registers for children not in school, reducing the risk of children becoming vulnerable to poor standards of education or risks to their safety and wellbeing.