Much work to do says Council's education lead as latest Progress 8 score shows borough's pupils lag behind national peers

South Tyneside Local Authority achieved a Progress 8 score of -0.39, meaning pupils are on average achieving over a third of a grade less in their GCSEs than pupils of pre-assessed similar ability nationally.

Commenting on the borough’s progress score, Cllr McHugh said: “We want all our young people to have the best start in life and are determined to make sure every child has the outstanding education that they deserve.

“We are pleased to see some good improvements in GCSE attainment in 2024, most notably in maths. However, some of the English results were disappointing, and while accountability gaps were narrowed between the borough and national, the lower outcomes in English have affected progress 8 measures.

“We acknowledge that there is much work to do to raise attainment and improve progress measures.”

Whilst Progress 8 compares pupils of the same pre-assessed ability, Cllr McHugh was keen to stress the “challenges” faced across the borough.

She said: “South Tyneside has high deprivation levels compared to national, and we have seen a significant increase in the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“One of the biggest challenges is improving attendance, particularly since the covid pandemic, and we are supporting schools to address this. Students with regular attendance are more likely to achieve well and make good progress.

“Primary and secondary schools are also working together to further develop the Key Stage 2 to 3 transition processes. There is a wealth of strong practice across the borough and a commitment from our schools to share and learn from each other.”

The Progress 8 scores for the city’s schools showed none had above average progress, two had average and six schools were classed as having a below or well below average progress.

The floor standard for Progress 8 set by the Department for Education is -0.5, meaning children are on average attaining half a grade less in their GCSEs than their national peers of pre-assessed similar ability.

Below this score, schools may be flagged to Ofsted as a cause for concern and could be subject to a subsequent inspection.

To calculate Progress 8, each school is given a statistically calculated positive or negative value which is used to assess the progress made by pupils of the same assessed starting point when they sat their Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in Year 6 and the results then achieved in their GCSEs in Year 11.

It was introduced in 2016 as a fairer way to assess a school’s academic performance, rather than simply looking at raw grades and outcomes.

A score above zero represents that pupils made more progress, on average, than pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Year 6 while a score below means, on average, they made less.