Bucks Councillor claims education system fails disadvantaged children

A councillor in Buckinghamshire has criticised a local authority cabinet member’s claims that the current education system in the county is excellent.

At a recent full council meeting Deputy leader, Councillor Gareth Williams, claimed the school system was excellent.

But Councillor Susan Levin submitted an article to The Bucks Herald disputing his claims, highlighting data which suggests the local authority needs to change its approach:

The deputy leader of Bucks Council claims our school system is “excellent” despite one of the largest attainment gaps in the country.

Deputy leader, Councillor Gareth Williams, claimed a system which fails disadvantaged children is “excellent”.

At Buckinghamshire Council’s full meeting on Wednesday 22 February, Councillor Williams responded to a member’s question about the attainment gap in the county. He declared that our huge attainment gap in Buckinghamshire is proof of an “excellent education system” and that questioning it is tantamount to wanting ‘levelling down’.

It is clear that he does not understand what an attainment gap is. He talked about the cause being the fact that our higher achieving pupils do so well. Even if this were true, it shows a shocking lack of awareness. The attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is wider in this selective county than most others. Latest available data shows that there is a 39% gap between FSM and non-FSM children obtaining five or more good GCSEs. The national gap is 26%.

The data also shows that in London 51% of FSM children obtained 5 or more A*-C GCSEs whilst in Bucks only 32% did. Hardly a good advert for our school system.

Let us look at the high achievers to see if this mitigates the situation in any way:

It is true that in Buckinghamshire schools many more pupils than the national average are awarded A* at A level. There is no doubt that we have a very good ‘top end’. However, and it is a very important however, other, non-selective counties do equally well and better, so it is an argument that falls at the first hurdle.

In 2021 :

In Non-Selective Oxfordshire 25.7% pupils achieved A* at A level

In Non-Selective Hertfordshire, 23.5%

In Selective Bucks, 23.2%

In Selective Kent, 18%

Nationally, there is a similar picture in other years. In the past five years Oxfordshire pupils have outperformed Bucks pupils at grade A and above at A level three times, according to Ofqual figures.

Many Bucks’ residents may not realise that around a third of grammar school places go to out of county children, reducing the number of places available for their own children.

I did email Councillor Williams asking if he would like a meeting so that I could explain the statistics to him but he has so far declined the offer.

In response to the figures listed Councillor Anita Cranmer told The Bucks Herald: “The more accurate and up to date measure for pupil attainment, which reflects the newer GCSE grading system, is the Attainment 8 score. The most recent figures for 2022 show that the difference between FSM pupils and other pupils for Attainment 8 in Bucks was 23.9 points. This compares to 15 nationally and 18.8 in the south east.

“In 2022 the Attainment 8 score for FSM pupils in Bucks was 35.8 in Bucks. The national average is 37, meaning Buckinghamshire is only just over 1 point below this.

“We are working hard to narrow the attainment gap for all children in Buckinghamshire and have developed an ongoing improvement programme to address these areas which we continue to adapt and evolve to ensure we are achieving this aim.

“The figures quoted on the number of out of county pupils attending grammar schools in Bucks do not tally with the figures we hold which show that only just over a quarter (28%) of pupils attending grammar schools in Bucks live outside of the county. Of these 28%, 5% although living in a neighbouring county, still fall within the catchment area for the school they attend.”