Hampshire’s children and young people are top of the class

A report to Hampshire County Council’s Children and Young People Select Committee has shown that, yet again, Hampshire’s Children and Young People are outperforming their peers nationally at all key stages of their education.

Commending the report, Councillor Roz Chadd, Executive Member for Education and Skills, commented: “It is reassuring to see that pupils in Hampshire are benefiting from consistently high standards in education, reflected in over 90 per cent of Hampshire schools being judged good or outstanding by Ofsted.  The value of this is evident in the achievements of children and young people at the end of all key stages and has helped them to cope with important curriculum transitions and, in some cases, changes of schools from key stage 1 though to key stage 4.”

Data indicates that pre-school education has been consistently strong over the past three years. This sets a good foundation for children entering infant school (key stage 1) and means that combined with good education provision, by the age of seven, the proportion of children reaching the Government’s preferred measure of Age Related Expectations in reading, writing and mathematics is well above national indicators – 77 per cent in Hampshire (71.8 per cent nationally).

In the same three subject areas, standards at the end of key stage 2 (junior school years 3, 4, 5 and 6) in Hampshire schools are well above the average of Hampshire’s ten statistically neighbouring authorities and national averages with 68 per cent of children meeting Government expectations (65 per cent nationally).

At secondary education level (key stage 3 and 4), performance measures and their associated GCSE courses have undergone unprecedented change since 2016. Attainment in Hampshire secondary schools has improved in the face of on-going changes to GCSE courses and their assessment, securing strong performance against that achieved nationally. The proportion of pupils who achieved a 9 to 4 GCSE grade in both mathematics and an English subject in Hampshire was 68.1 per cent, compared with 64.4 per cent nationally.

Outcomes for disadvantaged pupils (those eligible for free school meals or in local authority care) is a priority area of focus for the County Council’s school improvement team. Disadvantaged pupils continue to be above or broadly in line with those nationally in the Early Years and primary phase. At the secondary phase improvement is evident in English and mathematics combined at GCSE grade 4 and above.

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