Bedford Borough puts plans in place to narrow gap is school results

Bedford Borough Council's Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee will hear today that the Council, working with partners, is committed to improving pupil's attainment results.

Bedford Borough pupils' progress made when at the borough's secondary schools is considerably above national average, however the Council admits overall results are not good enough, with the combined Reading, Writing and Maths measure at Key Stage 2 a particular concern.

Some of the plans include:

• The creation of a new Education Improvement Governance Group, chaired by the portfolio holder for Children's Service and Education with representatives from maintained schools, academies, free schools and governors to look at setting up governance and working groups to address any perceived gaps in support for schools and their pupils in raising attainment
• Creation of an "Education Improvement Strategy" for Bedford Borough this year, which looks at how all agencies and partners can work together to achieve the priorities set out in the strategy. This will be coproduced with schools, colleges, parent carer forum and wider stakeholders
• An innovative partnership with University College London has been formed, in particular its Institute of Education to work with key academics on the creation of the new Education Improvement Strategy and to explore the underlying reasons for our historically low attainment and how we can work together to address this using the latest research and evidence
• Chief Education Officer and the Manager for School Improvement have met formally with Head and Chair of the lowest under performing schools to review, challenge and support their plans for improvement
• Community of practice "Insights into excellence": 10 participating Bedford Borough Primary schools will visit very high performing Luton Primary schools to explore their curriculum, quality assurance, assessment and to carry out lesson visits. These schools will attend a follow-up meeting to share the observed practice and discuss and agree an area for development. This will be followed up by an "insights into excellence," hosted by schools within the participating learning community, and shared more widely with all interested schools. This is a collaborative project with Chiltern Teaching School Hub