This section draws on pupil attendance and SEN data with particular respect to behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD) from the National Pupil Database to compare change over time in schools involved in the PSA pilot against all other schools nationally. PSA schools may differ in several respects from non-PSA schools, and there are indications that PSA schools serve more socially and economically disadvantaged populations than other schools in the pilot Local Authorities (LA) and nationally. For example the TDA report that 21% of pupils were entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) in PSA schools, compared to 17% in the Pilot LAs overall and just 14% nationally. We therefore decided to access
national data on all schools in England to evaluate how PSA schools have improved in terms of attendance outcomes and compare this to improvement rates in all schools nationally.
6.2 Methodology
School identification
The DCSF/TDA supplied the school unique reference number (URN) of the PSA schools so that these could be identified among all schools in the Register of Educational
Establishments. This allowed the comparison of changes in attendance over the three academic years 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 separately for PSA and non-PSA schools. Data sources
The DCSF supplied pupil level datasets for the attendance of secondary pupils in 2005/06 and all primary and secondary pupils in 2006/07 and 2007/08. Pupil level data were not available for 2005/06, so data were supplied at school aggregate level from the previous DCSF annual ‘Absence in Schools Survey’. Also the 2007/08 attendance data cover the autumn and spring terms only, since summer term 2007/08 data were collected
retrospectively in the subsequent January return. The final dataset from DCSF was received in early February 2009.
The following specific measures were derived: Context measures
• Total roll (statutory school age)
• % of boys
• % statutory age roll entitled to Free School Meal (FSM)
• Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) (the proportion of pupils residing in the 25% most deprived neighbourhoods)
• % statutory age roll with Special Educational Need (SEN), and for behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD) in particular, specifically at School Action Plus (SAP) or above
• % statutory age roll of White British ethnicity
• % statutory age roll with English as Additional Language (EAL). Outcome measures
• % of half days missed due to authorised and unauthorised absence combined (overall absence). The DCSF consider the overall absence measure is more reliable than separate rates of unauthorised/authorised absence, because “the decision to authorise an absence is a local decision leading to unmeasured variation both between and within schools… using overall absence rates and the rate of persistent absentees removes variation and gives more suitable data for performance reporting” (DCSF, 2007, p5).
• % of pupil enrolments that are persistent absentees. These are defined as pupils absent for more than 20% of all possible sessions (DCSF, 2007, p5)
• % of pupils at school action plus (SAP) or above with a statement for Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD). Only those pupils at SAP, undergoing formal assessment or with a statement are included since schools are not required to indicate the type of SEN need for pupils at School Action (SA).
6.3 Results
6.3.1 Numbers of schools and pupils
All measures were aggregated up from pupil level data. Thus around 6.5 million pupils were examined in each academic year. The number of schools and pupils varied slightly across years and outcome measures, but values based upon January School Census records are given in Table 45.
Table 45 Numbers (%) of pupils on roll in PSA and non-PSA schools
Phase PSA status
Schools Pupils Schools Pupils Schools Pupils Primary Not PSA 16649 3,177,778 16542 3,285,049 16381 3,209,967
PSA 842 169,719 841 175,814 821 167,708 Total 17491 3,347,497 17383 3,460,863 17202 3,377,675 Secondary Not PSA 3138 2,814,787 3149 2,791,858 3114 2,737,046 PSA 265 249,381 266 245,714 265 237,623 Total 3403 3,064,168 3415 3,037,572 3379 2,974,669 All Schools Not PSA 20813 6,062,034 20709 6,153,697 19495 5,947,013 (including nursery PSA 1142 421,934 1144 424,690 1086 405,331 & special) Total 21955 6,483,968 21853 6,578,387 20581 6,352,344
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
Note. Total number of PSA schools is lower for 2007/08 because the total does not include 37 special schools/PRUs and three nursery schools.
Around three-quarters of PSA schools were primary schools, 842 primary compared to 265 secondary. However, a higher number of pupils attended secondary PSA schools than attend primary PSA schools, approx. 250,000 in secondary PSA schools compared to around 175,000 in Primary PSA schools.
6.3.2 Contextual measures
Social disadvantage - Entitlement to a FSM
Table 46 shows the average entitlement to FSM over the last three academic years by school phase and PSA status. Results are presented separately for primary and secondary schools. The small number of nursery (n = 3) and special schools / PRUs (n = 37) are not shown separately but are included in the grand total.
Table 46 Percentage of pupils entitled to a free school meal
Phase PSA status
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 Change
Primary schools Not PSA 16.8 16.9 16.6 -0.1
PSA 22.5 22.7 22.2 -0.3
Total 17.0 17.2 16.9 -0.2
Difference (% points) 5.7 5.8 5.6
Secondary schools Not PSA 14.7 14.4 14.2 -0.5
PSA 16.2 15.8 15.7 -0.5
Total 14.8 14.5 14.3 -0.5
Difference (% points) 1.4 1.4 1.5
All Schools Not PSA 16.0 16.0 15.5 -0.5
PSA 18.9 18.8 18.4 -0.5
Total 16.2 16.1 15.7 -0.5
Difference (% points) 2.8 2.8 2.9
% Entitled to a Free School Meal
The results reveal that PSA schools on average serve more disadvantage pupil populations among primary schools. In 2007/08 22.2% of pupils in PSA primary schools were entitled to FSM against 16.6% in all other primary schools, a highly significant difference (z = 4.15, p < .001). There was a much smaller difference among secondary schools. For example in 2007/08 15.7% of pupils in PSA schools were entitled to FSM against 14.2% in other secondary schools, which was not statistically significant. Both sets of figures were consistent over the three academic years.
Social disadvantage - IDACI
A similar pattern is revealed by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI). The 25% most deprived neighbourhoods were identified from the national index and the
proportion of each school’s pupils residing in bottom quartile neighbourhoods was calculated. The results are shown in Table 47.
Table 47 Percentage of pupils in high deprivation neighbourhoods
Phase PSA status % high deprivation neighbourhoods
2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 change
Primary schools Not PSA 25.6 25.9 26.1 0.6
PSA 34.2 34.2 36.5
Total 26.0 26.3 26.6
Difference (% points) 8.7 8.3 10.4
Secondary schools Not PSA 24.4 24.2 24.1 -0.3
PSA 25.3 25.1 26.6
Total 24.4 24.2 24.3 -0.1
Difference (% points) 0.9 0.9 2.5
All Schools Not PSA 25.1 25.3 25.2 0.1
PSA 29.0 29.0 30.7 Total 25.4 25.5 25.5 Difference (% points) 3.8 3.7 5.5 2.3 0.6 1.3 1.7 0.2
Again the results indicate a highly significant difference between PSA and other schools in the primary phase (z = 6.58, p < .001) but a much smaller and not statistically significant difference between PSA and non-PSA secondary schools.
Ethnic composition
PSA schools had a higher proportion of White British pupils than non-PSA schools,
particularly among secondary schools, and this difference was statistically significant when evaluated across all schools (z = 2.47, p < .025) see Table 48. A general demographic trend for an increase in the proportion of ethnic minority pupils over the three years is apparent, particularly in primary schools where the proportion of White British pupils reduces from about 78% in 2005/06 to 74% in 2007/08.
Table 48 Percentage of White British pupils