Vulnerable Oxfordshire schoolchildren struggling (From The Oxford Times)

Vulnerable Oxfordshire schoolchildren struggling

3:08pm Thursday 25th February 2010 in

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SOME of the most vulnerable children in Oxfordshire are lagging behind their schoolmates.

New figures show the proportion of children in the county from challenging backgrounds achieving the expected levels of development in early years and foundation classes was worse than other children.

The report from the Department for Children, Schools and Families focussed on children from different ethnic minorities, those who have special educational needs, those whose first language is not English and those who qualify for free school meals.

Not only did fewer children from those groups reach their goals, but a lower proportion than the national average managed to reach the benchmarks.

Children in early years education, aged three and four, are expected to demonstrate they have reached a certain level of personal, social and emotional development, and are also assessed on their communication, language and literacy.

While 53 per cent of white children in the county achieved expected levels of development, the figure fell to 46 per cent for children of mixed race, 34 per cent for Asian pupils, 35 per cent for black pupils and 52 per cent for Chinese pupils.

The national average for mixed race pupils was 52 per cent, 46 per cent for Asian children, 44 per cent for black pupils and 52 per cent for Chinese children.

Just 34 per cent of pupils whose first language is not English achieved the targets, compared to a national average of 42 per cent in the same category.

For children with English as their first language, 53 per cent of county pupils reached the expected level, but only 23 per cent of pupils qualifying for free school meals reached the goals, compared with 35 per cent of pupils nationally.

Also, just nine per cent of children with special educational needs or those with a statement of special needs, reached their expected levels of development. The national average was 15 per cent.

Maggie Smith, strategic lead for early years at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We recognise the importance of continuing to improve the learning and achievement for all our most vulnerable groups of young children.

“We are focussing on and developing our support and work with those vulnerable groups through training and working alongside staff and involving them in national programmes to improve language and literacy skills.”

She claimed improvements were being made in the sector.

She added: “We are already seeing results moving in an upward trend.

“Over the last two years we have narrowed the gap in achievement between the most vulnerable children and the rest in the county and we have met our statutory targets set by the Government.”

The figures are for the years 2006 to 2009 and refer to just under 7,000 children in Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council director Patrick Tolani said improving black and Asian students’ confidence and sense of inclusion was vital in improving results.

He said: “I think these are known facts and in my honest opinion I don’t think anybody is as concerned about it as they should be.

“It’s a real challenge to improve the situation.

“It’s not just the responsibility of teachers and the Government, but parents too.”