Yahoo News White five-year-olds in Leicester are least developed in country
White five-year-olds in Leicester are performing worst of all children of the same age in the country when it comes to their development, statistics have shown. This is at odds with their classmates of Asian heritage, who are performing above the national average.
Children are assessed by their teachers at the end of the academic year in which they turn five. The assessment covers 17 “early learning goals” grouped into seven areas of teaching. They are considered to be at a “good level of development” if they are at the expected standard for 12 goals across five areas of learning.
The "goals" cover: communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy and mathematics. Leicester ranked last of 152 local authority areas for the percentage of white children aged five who are considered to have a “good level of development”.
READ MORE: Former police officer used warrant card while suspended to get into nightclub for free
In the city, 60.3 per cent of white youngsters met the threshold in the latest figures available, versus 68.6 per cent nationally. The gap between the local and countrywide figures has widened in the past year.
Meanwhile, pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Leicester are being left behind compared to their classmates. Only one in five SEND youngsters achieved a good level of development in the city last year, compared to an average of 63.6 - about three in five - across all city pupils.
Among pupils of Asian heritage in Leicester, 68.1 per cent hit the threshold, compared to 66.7 per cent nationally.
Girls also continue to outperform boys at that age in the city, with 70.5 per cent and 56.6 per cent hitting target respectively.
Leicester children on free school meals performed above the national average, with 54 per cent versus 52 per cent respectively having a good level of development. However, that figure has dropped from pre-pandemic levels, when it was 61 per cent locally.
Leicester City Council said in a report setting out the figures that the statistics “possibly highlights that there is a longer tail impact of the pandemic”. “These low starting points of children starting formal education at the beginning of year one means that they have to make very good progress in order to catch-up with their peers,” the report added.
The report also stated that the benchmark for a “good level of development” was considered “useful" for determining whether children in this age group are “ready for school”.
The trends appear to be largely reflected when local children sit their Year Six SATs and get their GCSE results in Year 11. In 2022, the Department for Education set a target of 90 per cent of all children across the country meeting the expected standards in reading, writing and maths at the end of Year Six by 2030. In Leicester last year, only 58 per cent of these pupils met that expected standard. The local authority area ranked 95th of 152 for this statistic, slipping from 82nd in 2022.
Again, children of Asian heritage performed best locally at that level, and white children the worst. Only 51 per cent of white children met expectations in their SATs, and the city was ranked 148 of 152 areas for this group. Local SEND children also performed worse than their peers did nationally.
Three measurements are taken into account for GCSE age pupils.: Attainment Eight considers the average total score of up to eight qualifications; Progress Eight is the average progress pupils made over eight qualifications since they took their SATs; and Basics Nine to Five looks at the proportion of pupils who scored grade five or above in both English and maths. GCSE grading returned to the pre-pandemic system last year.
The Attainment Eight figure for Leicester pupils was below the national average at 45.1 compared to 46.4 across the country. Leicester is ranked 90th of 152 for this statistic, improving from 117th in 2022.
Fewer city pupils achieved a grade five or above in both maths and English last year, at 41.9 per cent, than in 2022, at 44.7 per cent. However, the national average - 45.5 per cent - also dropped in 2023, and by larger proportion than locally. For Progress Eight, the city did better than average and ranked 36th of 152 areas.
White children still performed worse at GCSE. They had an average Attainment Eight score of 36.2 across eight subjects which is less than a grade four pass score. The city ranked 150th of 152 areas for this statistic. Asian pupils again came out time with an Attainment Eight average of 51.2. That put that specific cohort 110th of 152 areas.
Laurence Jones, strategic director for social care and education at Leicester City Council, said: “Whilst the local authority is not directly responsible for educational outcomes, it is important that local councillors understand the picture across the city and so that academies, school governing bodies and the Department for Education can be challenged where performance is not as good as it can be. It’s also important that we recognise the excellent progress of learners in the majority of our schools.
“This report also helps the council to identify where we can work more closely with schools and other educational providers, particularly where there are vulnerable learners who would benefit from the support of our children and family services. For example, we are currently focusing on the ‘early help’ we can offer to families, implementing family hubs that help children to get ready for school, providing attendance support and developing our early help strategy.”
