Kent Children in Care 2016/17 Data Collection

As you are aware, it is part of our statutory duty to promote the educational achievement of our children in care and to ensure that we have robust tracking procedures in place helps us to do this effectively.

As you can appreciate, schools are now working with their own tracking systems - and yet we need one consistent approach across Kent to achieve this. In order to minimise workload for schools and also achieve this at the same time, we are writing to inform you about some changes to the way we will be collecting future Progress & Attainment Data and KS4 Examination results.

Designated Teachers and Designated Members of Staff can find guidance on Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) funding and expectations for schools contained in the new PP+ Policy on the VSK website.

Please note the following changes:

1. Progress & Attainment data collection will take place three times a year (at the end of terms 2, 4 and 6). There will be no extra forms to complete as this will ONLY be collected through ePEP.
2. The data will be entered onto ePEP in the usual Attainment Section, but will need to be completed by the last day of Term 2, 4 and 6.
3. PEPs will fall between these dates and there is no need to enter further Attainment data for the meeting but we would still expect discussion about Progress & Attainment data at the PEP meeting, using the recorded data as a guide and for this discussion to be clearly recorded in the PEP meeting minutes.
4. The FIRST new data collection using this approach will be for Progress & Attainment at the end of Term 4
   2016.

We will be asking schools for the following data:

• EY Foundation Stage - the type of data collection will not change
• KS1 & KS2 - Reading, Writing, Maths and SPAG
• KS3 - English and Maths
• KS4 - English, Maths and all other subjects including vocational ones.

Here is some guidance for you on completing the fields in the Attainment section on ePEP:

• Current level - a free type box that asks school to record attainment level according to their own data tracking system e.g. terms such as ‘developing’ or points might be used
• Expected level - a free type box that asks school to record the level the young person would be expected to be at by the end of the current academic year according to the school’s own data tracking system e.g. terms such as ‘secure’ or points might be used
• Current Attainment - a RAG* rating that reflects attainment according to ‘age-related expectations’ against national standards e.g. attainment for a Year 4 learner who is on track within the Programme of Study for Year 4 might be considered as working at ‘on target’.
• Current Progress - a RAG* rating that reflects progress against in-year expectations using the school’s own tracking system e.g. a Year 7 learner might have progressed beyond targets and this
  might be considered as ‘above target’.

RAG* Rating = Significantly above target, Above target, On target, Below target, Significantly below target.

Information around SEN

Learners attending a specialist provision might be attaining below ‘age-related’ expectations but could still be making good progress using school’s own measuring data systems e.g. upper quartile progress could be considered as making ‘above’ expected progress.

Information around new arrivals e.g. UASC

We understand that Learners may arrive with incomplete data and be working below age expected levels, but please record the subjects they are studying and add data as it becomes available ready for the next data collection.

KS4 Examination Collection

There will also be a change this year to the way in which we collect KS4 examination results from schools. Designated Teachers are required to share information with their data managers in order that the KS4 examination results can be entered onto ePEP on the day of receipt.

Should you have any problems with any of the above then please contact the Assistant Head for your locality.

For further guidance on Kent Children in Care and the PP+ Policy, please visit our website

Contact Details

Email: virtual.school.kent@kent.gov.uk