War of words over battle to boost reading (From Witney Gazette)

War of words over battle to boost reading

9:30am Monday 6th August 2012 in News By Fran Bardsley, covering Education, East Oxford and Cowley. Call me on 01865 425439

STRUGGLING Oxford schools will have to choose between rival council schemes aimed at boosting pupil performance.

Oxfordshire County Council is investing £585,142 in a project to boost reading in primary schools, and is planning to work in 80 schools across the county, including schools in Oxford.

But at the same time Oxford City Council , that has no statutory responsibility for education, has launched a rival scheme.

It is planning to spend £1.4m over the next three years working with 10 city primaries to boost attainment levels in literacy and numeracy at Key Stage 1 and 2.

And it has emerged if schools are approached they will have to pick one scheme over the other.

Oxfordshire County Council education cabinet member Melinda Tilley described it as a “huge” concern and suggested the city council would be better spending money improving its housing stock.

She said: “I don’t want to have a spat over children with the city council.

“I just wish they would support our scheme and not work what feels like against us.

“We finally have a scheme which looks and feels more feasible than anything we have had so far and there is an elephant in the room.”

Mrs Tilley said initially the city council had suggested putting money towards the county council’s scheme and ring-fencing it for Oxford schools, which she said would have made a huge difference.

But she added: “If the schools opt in to the city scheme (now), we will just go away. We can’t play that sort of game with the education of children.”

In 2010, Oxford’s seven-year-olds received the worst Key Stage 1 results in the country, with almost a quarter failing to reach expected levels in reading.

The county as a whole was second from bottom when compared with 11 other most similar authority areas.

Steve Curran, city council board member for young people, education and community development, said: “We have been concerned about the level of attainment in schools in Oxford for some time.

“It would have been difficult to hand it over to the county and lose the overall overseeing side of it.

“We wanted to ensure the money we put in was towards something more intensive than the county were planning for its schools.”

He said he hoped to work collaboratively with the county council, and pointed out if the city council worked with 10 schools, that would leave another 35 in the city that would not be part of the process which could be part of the county reading scheme.

The rival schemes baffled parent and governor Dr Jane Littlehales, who has two children at Larkrise Primary School.

She said: “We need long-term investment, not just little bits here there are everywhere.
“The money is very welcome and I hope it’s put into useful and appropriate schemes, but you can’t expect movement to happen overnight.”

She said it seemed “daft” that schools would have to choose between two schemes and added: “If a school needs help, they need help. Why make them choose between one or the other.
“It’s very confusing.”

Oxford City Council spokesman Annette Cunningham said the county council was fully involved in a seminar in June 2011 where options for how the city council could support educational attainment in the city were discussed.

Ms Cunningham said those consulted with between March and June 2012 included 16 headteachers, 12 teachers and nine county council staff, and meetings and seminars were held between stakeholders including the county council on four occasions in June and July.

In 2010, Oxford’s seven-year-olds received the worst Key Stage 1 results in the country, with almost a quarter failing to reach expected levels in reading.

The county as a whole was second from bottom when compared with 11 other most similar authority areas.

HOW THEY WORK

Oxfordshire County Council’s scheme starts in September and aims to increase the number of children achieving Level 2B at Key Stage 1 (aged seven) to 86 per cent by 2015, a rise of 12 percentage points.

The National Literacy Trust will work with 80 schools, identified by using Key Stage 1 and 2 results, Ofsted reports and those in areas of deprivation.

But all schools will receive some input.

The schools have not yet been made public.

It will include volunteers going into schools and reading with children, and extra training for teaching staff.

Oxford City Council has employed educational consultant Anna Wright Consulting, former director of children’s services in Reading, for its three year scheme, to be called The Oxford Challenge: Achieving World Class Teaching.

Two tenders have gone out, one to put together a programme for primary school leaders in disadvantaged areas, and one for a research based programme to raise language, literacy and numeracy in primary schools in disadvantaged areas.

The deadlines are in September for the leadership scheme and August 24 for the second scheme, and so far 31 ‘suppliers’ have expressed an interest in the first scheme and 12 in the second.

The target is for 95 per cent of children to achieve Level 2 in reading at age seven and 84 per cent to achieve Level 4 in both English and maths at age 11 by 2016.

Fourteen schools have already been approached but the aim is around 10 will be involved in the scheme, dependent on uptake.