Some children in Liverpool are not going to school ‘ready’ from early years according to the city’s education director.
Jonathan Jones told a committee of councillors that Liverpool needs a “concerted effort” to develop a system to support the city’s children in their early development. Mr Jones’ comments came after a report found that the number of children in the foundation stage in Liverpool is almost 7% lower than the national average at 58.3%.
In a schools update report, it said that was the equivalent of 378 fewer pupils achieving a good level of development compared to national. Mr Jones told an education and skills committee the council was still “right at the very, very bottom” of performing authorities and the early years sector had “too little emphasis on education”.
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As a result, children were not starting school ready, he said. The education director added that currently Liverpool does not have an early years service or function currently and a specialist was being brought in to support the development of one.
In Key Stage Two, the schools update report found Liverpool Council’s expected standard percentage in reading, writing and maths has decreased by 10.1% from 62.0% in 2018/19 to 51.9% in 2021/22. This was almost 7% lower than the national average.
However, GCSE results proved to be an improvement for the city, with 64% achieving a standard pass in English and Maths combined - an increase of 6.5% on 2019. Persistent absenteeism continues to be a problem for the local authority, according to the report.
It is defined as a pupil's overall absence rate is 10% or higher of their possible sessions, they're classified as a persistent absentee. A session is one morning or afternoon in school.
Statistics identified that 32% of the Liverpool’s secondary school pupils are considered to be persistently absent, with 17% in the primary sector. The Government has named Liverpool as one of 24 priority education investment areas and as a result, will provide funding in a bid to help tackle attendance issues and development around the city’s early years provision.
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