Plan to cut targets for schools

Some councils could have 170 targets for groups

Councils in England could face fewer targets for different groups of pupils under proposals out for consultation.

Ministers want to cut from 17 to seven the number of groups for which councils have to set achievement targets.

There would no longer automatically be targets for any Asian groups except Pakistanis, or for white British or Chinese pupils.

Officials say these groups are not under-achieving. But pupils on free school meals will now be targeted.

It would be the first time these children from poorer homes will have been targeted as a group.

Burdensome

A consultation document published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) says the current target system - in place since 1998 - is burdensome to local authorities (LAs) "and is not operating as an effective driver on standards".

It goes on: "It produces extremely complex data-sets which may actually mask the most important priorities".

Councils have to set a range of targets for 17 groups linked to their achievement at various key stages of the curriculum up to the age of 16, and for their progression between stages.

The targets come down from central government to councils who then pass them on to schools - with advisers and head teachers typically going through classes name by name discussing children's potential.

The document says that in some diverse areas, councils would have to set as many as 170 different sub-targets.

"Our analysis shows that, in the face of this complexity, several LAs set flat targets across all their groups," it says.

The proposal is to have a shorter list of groups for which targets have to be set - but to impose a duty on local authorities to set targets for groups not on that list if they are under-performing locally.

The groups on the new list would be:

• Pupils with free school meals
• Black Caribbean and White/Black Caribbean
• Black African and White/Black African
• Black Other
• Pakistani
• White Other
• Gypsy, Roma and Traveller of Irish heritage

A spokesman for the DCSF said the idea was to streamline the targeting system and to focus on those groups which were under-performing nationally.

"We are committed to improving outcomes for all and to reduce inequalities between the poorest performers and the rest. We want to ensure that all children can reach their full potential."