Devon Education and Learning Update Report

The latest information about the performance of Devon’s schools will be shared with Devon Education Forum at the meeting on 22^nd November. Key Performance Indicators are:

• Overall absence rates have fallen slightly in the last year in Devon and nationally.
• Devon has slightly higher persistent absentee rates than nationally, regionally and statistical neighbours.
• 8% of Devon FSM pupils were persistently absent compared to 35.7% nationally.
• Severely absentee rates rose in the last year. Devon has higher rates than nationally, regionally and statistical neighbours.
• Permanent exclusions rose by 58% in the last year.
• There was an increase of 73% on suspensions from the previous year.
• Pupils eligible for FSM and those with SEN Support have seen the greatest increases in permanent exclusions and suspensions and also have the highest rates of permanent exclusions.
• In 2022/23, 2,951 children were registered as home educated at some point during the year, equating to 3.1% of the population (compared to 2.7% for 2021/22). This is an increase of 449 children (nearly 18%) and is the highest on record for Devon.
• The number of primary age children being home educated rose by 1.4% last year whilst secondary age children increased by 29.5%.
• Historically the main reason cited for deciding to home educate was lifestyle and philosophical, however mental health issues are now the main reason reported.
• 2022-2023 KS2 Pupil Outcomes – Attainment in the combined reading, writing and maths measure has fallen slightly this year 55% of Devon’s pupils met the expected standard, down from 56% in 2022, below national, regional, statistical neighbours.
• 2022-2023 KS4 Pupil Outcomes – The average Attainment 8 score for Devon pupils is 45.6 which is better than the statistical neighbours average (45.0). Devon pupils are not performing as well as the national average for state funded schools (46.3).
• 3% of Devon pupils achieved grades 5 or above in English and Maths GCSEs. This is in line with national (45.3%) and is better than statistical neighbours (42.0%).
• 4% of Devon pupils achieved grades 4 or above in English and Maths GCSEs, better than nationally (65.1%) and statistical neighbours (63.7%).
• Devon pupils are not progressing as well as nationally, with an average progress 8 score of -0.09 compared to -0.03 nationally .
• Devon’s disadvantaged students are not performing as well as nationally and our attainment gap remains an area for improvement.

Further information on the above can be found here.