Poor progress means the average student in Essex is one grade worse off compared to peers across the country, a new report has said.

The average progress made by students was greater than the national in just four districts in Essex, a new report has revealed.

The Essex County Council Education Scrutiny 2020 report, which looks at Progress 8 – a system introduced by the government in 2016 to measure the effectiveness of secondary schools – has shown that children are performing significantly worse in Essex than the national average.

Just Chelmsford, Colchester, Maldon and Uttlesford performed better than the national average score of 0.

Uttlesford has had the highest Progress 8 performance for the last two years – it registered a Progress 8 score of 0.1 after Key Stage 4 last year.

Harlow had the lowest performance in 2019 and has seen the greatest decline between 2018 and 2019 (falling by 0.25 points to -0.44 points) – this means here, on average, pupils achieved almost half a grade less than other pupils nationally with similar starting points.

Progress 8 aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of Key Stage 2 to the end of Key Stage 4. It compares pupils’ achievement – their Attainment 8 score – with the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally who had a similar starting point (or ‘prior attainment’), calculated using assessment results from the end of primary school.

Cllr Mike Mackrory, leader of the Lib Dem group at Essex County Council, said:  “If it was lower than the national average previously and there has been a further decline then that is a serious cause for concern.

“The question is what additional resources will be made available to schools to get them back up to where they ought to be.”

Actions the council says it is taking to improve outcomes include developing a new disadvantaged strategy to be launched in September 2020 and further develop the Essex recruitment and retention strategies to ensure talent stays in the county.

Some schools in Essex are performing very well, Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School, which scored 0.99 after last year’s Key Stage 4 was the second top performing school after Colchester County High School for Girls.

KEGS, Chelmsford County High, Moulsham High School and Colchester Royal Grammar were all rated well above average in their Progress 8 scores.

However the overall Essex performance has declined over the last three years, from above the statistical neighbour average in 2017, to below in 2018 and 2019.

Essex has also been below the national average for the last three years, showing that progress from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 is not as great in Essex as it is nationally, or among its statistical neighbours.

In 2019 the overall Progress 8 score for Essex was -0.13 compared to a national figure of -0.03 (for state schools) – this means here, on average, pupils achieved 0.13 less of a grade less than other pupils nationally with similar starting points.

To put it into context, a drop of -0.10 is equivalent to year 11 students in Essex achieving one grade lower in one and only one subject in their ‘package’ of qualifications that went into their Progress 8 score.

Key Stage 4 curriculum, recruitment and retention, a ‘changing context’ in Essex and underperformance of groups of pupils could all be reasons for the drop in performance, according to the county council.

It says that there could be several reasons for the poor outcomes – if students take a higher GCSE tier and then don’t achieve the threshold mark they are marked as ‘unclassified’. This has a big effect on Progress scores and was a significant factor in maths in 2018 and science in 2019 for several Essex schools.

Quick wins such as use of the iGCSEs in English and entering students for qualifications such as the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) are now not valid for the performance tables.

And in some schools, key groups of learners were entered for qualifications that were very much more demanding than was expected.

Over the past five years the real terms reduction in funding, the shortage in national and local initial teacher training candidates in shortage subjects, together with disadvantageous competition with surrounding local authorities has made securing a high-quality teaching staff to cover all areas of the curriculum an increasing challenge.

Schools also report an increasing number of students with mental health concerns which has a significant impact on the Progress 8 measure.

A statement attached to a report to be discussed by ECC’s people and families committee  on Thursday added: “Although there are many and varied reasons for the fall in Progress 8 in Essex (linked to the school and pupil contexts) we must robustly challenge schools to improve this measure over time.

“Many schools have changed their curriculum models which will better meet the needs of learners and should, therefore, have a positive impact on their Progress 8 scores in future years. However, some groups consistently perform lower and remain a priority for Essex.

“The new SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) and disadvantaged strategy and alignment of education and SEND teams will provide the additional capacity to challenge provision and outcomes. Collectively we need to improve the quality of education through improving recruitment and retention, teaching and learning, the curriculum and inclusion.”