R. Thornton
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Conclusions from 2005 PANDARevelations in Blackpool Gazette :-
“Jobs to be axed”, “Suspended teacher now working at Layton.”
Perhaps now the issues raised by the MSAG over the past year will be taken seriously.
Mr Turner and Mr Lund have often claimed that Mrs Coupe has been a victim in the saga of Marton’s problems and has received unnecessary ‘attacks’ by the MSAG. It has taken some time (7 months to be exact !) but have I recently managed to obtain a copy of the 2005 PANDA report, which provides completely independent evidence about a school. This is the report sent by the DfES to each headteacher based on their own data for school attainment in the educational year 2004 – 2005 (Mrs Coupe’s first year in charge). Not being in education I of course did not understand much of the content so sought advice from an independent educationalist. These were his comments:-
1. There were no significant changes in overall trends in Mrs Coupe’s first year in charge –future PANDAs will be needed to determine this. Fair enough.
2.The only reason there appeared to be no significant change at KS2 was because of excellent English attainment, which remained high, especially for below average children when they were KS1. New in 2005 was CVA- Contextual Value Added. This aims to take into account ALL a child's factors including prior attainment & social class/ethnicity.
This suggests that the Average Points Score improvement in 2005 (average for English Maths and Science) was due to improved performance in English.
3. The Maths attainment in 2004 - 2005 dropped considerably.
4. At KS1, after sustained attainment previously, results did fall in 2004. However they continued to fall further in 2005.
From this brief summary we can draw some alarming conclusions :-
1. The best. attainment was in English at KS2, other subjects, especially Maths, were much worse. This is interesting because for that 1st year of Mrs Coupe’s headship Mrs Alderson was still English co-ordinator. So the result of a successful year for the co-ordinator ? Did Mrs Alderson get a chance to share her expertise and skills with other staff ? No. With other co-ordinators to raise attainment ? No. Was she congratulated on her success ? No.
So what accolade did she receive from her headteacher – suspension for 11 months. However we can clearly see from this why Layton school must have been so pleased to have the chance to benefit from her skills.
2. We have been told that there was a ‘professional difference of opinion’ between the head and Mrs Alderson. Is this due to the standards Mrs Alderson set – she wanted success for the children not failure.
3. We know that, despite statements by Mrs Coupe to governors of which we now have evidence, the previous head did NOT retire because Marton was a failing school. we knew this anyway but the PANDA provides teachers, parents and governors with clear proof.
4. Maths results fell considerably.
What has been the response to this in 2005 – 2006 by Mrs Coupe ? More training for staff ? No because the school cannot afford it due to costs of supply covering Mrs Alderson and pupils leaving. Cover for staff to improve their own maths skills ? No – school cannot afford it because of costs of supply cover for Mrs Alderson and pupils leaving. Advisers employed to work alongside staff in the class room? No because the school cannot afford it ….. More monitoring and advice from the senior management team ? No because the deputy head has been teaching to save money. Raising the profile of the subject in school, making it a fun and lively subject so that everyone is positively motivated ? No !
What was Mrs Coupe’s answer then ? - Make all the year 6 children have extra hours of Maths per week !!!! I just wish when Ofsted had explained that Mrs Coupe had a ‘vision’ for the school that they had shared with us the fact that it was a vision of a school in Victorian England.
5. The costs of this failure in attainment has been well documented on this forum. Supply cover for Mrs A, supply cover for the many staff off sick with stress, legal fees incurred by the authority for consultations, fees charged by Capita in an attempt to make a case against Mrs Alderson, costs to the school of families withdrawing children, and now settlement for Mrs Alderson – I am sure there must have been a payout because a union would not accept admittance of wrongful suspension without compensation. In all a conservative estimate of £300 000. How many employees’ salaries does this amount to ?
All the above makes shocking reading in the light of the job losses announced in the Gazette. All for what ? No improvement in the school, in fact the only area which was successful has now lost its co-ordinator to Layton.
For goodness' sake governors and teachers at Marton, open your eyes. You now seem to be burying your heads more than ever. The PANDA is the clearest and most damning evidence yet of mismanagement of the school. Those staff and governors who continue to blindly follow without question should be thoroughly ashamed when they see the Gazette report about job losses in Blackpool, which have been contributed to so greatly by Marton school.
I keep repeating - you do not have to believe me or the MSAG. There is no need any longer because there is enough concrete evidence available for you to use to ask questions. Send a copy of the PANDA yourself to any adviser. Ask who will pay for any payout to Mrs Alderson. Ask how many hours was a Capita adviser employed at £700 per day. If evidence against Mrs Alderson was clear enough Capita would never have been involved - in other authorities the LEA deal with it. Ask for details of the costs of trying to close this forum. Ask why the LEA moved Mrs Alderson to Layton - they are obviously happy to employ her because of her skills. Teachers check your contract - you are NOT employed by the school- you are employed by the authority. Ask yourselves - if you gave evidence against Mrs Alderson, why has it gone on for so long if your evidence was clear and damning ?
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Lisa
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It's no wonder that this has been kept secret for months. Most schools actively disclose results for all parents to see. You need to know the achievements (or failures) of the school you children attend. It is a disgrace that this information hasn't been shared.
By the way I have been told that the Panda Report hasn't even been shown to the governors.
All this confirms what we knew all along. There are severe faults at Marton School and these need rectifying immediately. Please would someone in authority sort out this mess!
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R. Thornton
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PandaActually Lisa, the Panda is originally obtained by the head teacher direct from the DfEs I think. I have looked at websites and I don't think the head needs to share it with anyone - but it must be made available to teachers, parents and governors who ask.
In most schools this does not need to happen - it is shared automatically so that the head can use it to inform everyone what needs doing. I don't know of any schools where my friends teach, or where friends' children go where the Panda isn't shared.
I hope you are not correct about the governors because I do know that the Panda is required by DfES rules to be used by governors when they carry out the head's performance management - that is on the DfES' website and the Governorline website. Any recommendations are based on this. I wonder if Mrs Coupe received a pay increase this year based on this Panda ?
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Alan Veale
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Who to blame?I note all that Mr Thornton says with interest, and of course I am sure that the independent educationalists (?) are correct in their interpretation of this report. Normally, such things as PANDA reports are of no great interest to parents. We automatically assume that those people who use them will use them correctly, and act accordingly. How much we all take for granted when we wave our children off at the school gates! Even during my spell as a governor myself, I paid little attention to such reports – as long as the school was functioning well, what interest were such things to me?
But things are different now.
The school is NOT functioning well. OFSTED told us so. Teachers have told us so by their very actions – some in support of their head teacher, some against. The LEA admitted as long ago as last October that the school was in trouble. The school has lost its Investors in People status, and then there has been the long, controversial disciplinary case against Mrs Alderson constantly simmering in the background. So – the PANDA report for 2005 has a greater meaning for the school, and for all those of us who have an interest in it.
We read in the paper that up to 50 people working within the Children’s Services Agency at Progress House may be about to lose their jobs because the department has overspent its budget, and I am sure those 50 people will be wanting to know who they have to blame for this situation. Why did your department overspend its budget?
Could it have something to do with Marton Primary School? Is there any possibility that the costs of all those additional supply teachers could have had an impact? What about those legal costs? Has this Capita consultant really been charging the CSA £700 an hour for her services? Ask away – but don’t expect your boss (David Lund) to give you a straight answer!
But then there is this thorny question of a payrise for Mrs Coupe: No! Surely even Ruth Coupe could not possibly have been able to persuade the authorities that she deserved a payrise based on this PANDA? I may be cynical, but I believe this is EXACTLY what she has done! She went for this post in the first place because it would give her a bigger salary (nothing wrong with that), but I don’t believe for one moment that she would continue in her post if she did not feel she could gain even more financially. I don’t think this woman does what she does for any other motivation than money. She has complete control of her governing body, and therefore has the power to get them to approve whatever she puts in front of them. We have already seen how any voice of resistance has been removed, and the present governors seem willing to “rubber-stamp” anything that Coupe and Turner put in front of them. So what’s to stop her?
Simply this: YOU! If enough of us shout loud enough to the authorities that we have had enough – and actually TELL them that, then they have to act. Otherwise, it will come to a point where the school will close, because there are not going to be enough children attending for the LEA to keep it open. Oh well - I suppose that's one way of resolving the problem...
Your call, ladies and gentlemen.
Alan Veale
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Lisa
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Mr Thornton
Could you provide a few facts and figures from the PANDA report for all the doubters out there please.
By the way, what is your first name (R)? Mr Thornton is so formal. 
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R. Thornton
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Facts and FiguresI will do Lisa. BUT I have spent a bit of time looking at it this morning and there are pages and pages of it. Not being in education I can understand some of it but only small parts. I will send it off again and ask for a clearer and more detailed report including data.
I noted Alan's (?) next to 'educationalist'. It might be a good idea for me to clarify this just in case any governors read the forum.
I sent it to a 'Freelance Education Consultant'. There are thousands of these now in the education system by the look of it - often retired heads or retired advisers. They make up the Ofsted teams, some do work for colleges supervising trainee teachers in school, or do training for schools, run courses for LEAs - all types of things. The person who looked at the PANDA for me works as an external adviser carrying out Head Teachers' performance management. Searching the web I found a lot who specialise in helping parents - choosing schools for their children, helping with behaviour problems or advice for children with special needs.
So basically, if the governors really do want to verify thngs for themselves it is a very easy matter to find someone to analyse the PANDA for them. I would have thought there would be some who help governing bodies. Search the web, look in the education section of the Guardian (Tuesday I think).
I would like to confirm Alan's opening statement too. What a steep learning curve this past year has been. Like Alan I took for granted the running of the school. If a child looks happy going to school what more is there to worry about ? I have certainly learned a lot about the education system and not much of it has been good. Perhaps other schools like Marton around the country have suffered like Marton because of the apathy of people like me before all this kicked off.
Richard Thornton 
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R. Thornton
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PandaI apologise for the delay in replying to Lisa's request, but these advisers are clearly very busy. I reproduce here his response to my request. Please bear in mind that this person has no connection with Marton school, he was concerned with the data only and knows nothing of this site, parental concerns or events at the school.
(The poor formatting is my fault - I am unable to line things up following my cut and paste )
The first thing to say is that there is only one year's data since the previous headteacher left so trends are not yet possible to identify.Typically trends take 3 years to show real patterns that can't be put down to blips/individual cohorts.
In 2004 there was a drop (over the previous year) in attainment @ KS1 but there was a rise (over the previous year) in attainment @ KS2.
KS1
There was a drop in attainment at KS1in 2004 but what you can see here is a drop in attainment at KS1 in 2005 compared to 2004 in all measures and that Writing showed a very large fall of 15 points from 2004 to 2005.
Attainment ON ALL MEASURES was lower in 2005 than it was in 2004.
The new PANDA is not very helpful when it comes to KS1 comparative data as there is no Baseline on which to judge prior attainment.
2004 2005
Average Point Score 14.3 14.0
% Level 2+ Reading 77.1 63.2
% Level 2+ Writing 71.4 67.6
% Level 2+ Mathematics 85.7 82.4
% Level 2B+ Reading 61.4 54.4
% Level 2B+ Writing 57.1 42.6
% Level 2B+ Mathematics 70.0 54.4
KS2
At KS2 there had been a big rise in attainment in 2004. This was a further slight improvement in 2005 in terms of Average Points Score (APS) but there was no improvement in the L4+ measure in ANY subject and there was a serious drop in Maths in 2005.
2003 2004 2005
Average Point Score 26.3 27.1 27.3
% Level 4+ English 71.0 81 81
% Level 4+ Mathematics 65.2 76 65
% Level 4+ Science 79.7 87 86
You will see from the data that in terms of L4+ attainment (the key government benchmark at the time) there were BIG rises in 2004 over the 2003 figures. On the basis of this L4+benchmark English and Science attainment was equalled in 2005 but Maths attainment fell back sharply to its 2003 figure
A new measure was introduced in 2005 called CVA- Contextual Value Added.
This aims to take into account ALL a child's factors including prior attainment & social class/ethnicity. It was introduced in response to complaints that schools working with large numbers of challenging pupils did not get sufficient recognition for the improvements they have made to those pupils. Under the old system schools were compared with broadly similar schools based largely on Free School Meal data. There is currently considerable debate on just how accurate the CVA is. Some commentators suggest the DfES data differs from Fischer Family Trust data which is also meant to give an accurate picture of the socio economic profile of the pupil body. This debate is ongoing.
The CVA data indicates that in terms of Value Added the trend in 2004 was continued in 2005 but you will note that the biggest rise is in English and contributed substantially to an overall rise in CVA
The English CVA for 2005 is the only area where in terms of Value Added the school features as significantly higher than other schools nationally (highlighted)
2003 2004 2005
AAT value added 99.2 99.8 100.4
Contextual value added 99.4 99.6 100.1
English CVA 100.3 99.9 100.6
Mathematics CVA 98.8 99.3 99.8
Science CVA 99.2 99.5 99.7
My only additional comment on this analysis is of course to recognise that the only area which is above national average is English - whose co-ordinator was suspended
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Lisa
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Results of PANDA ReportAmazing! Those responsible for this drop in standards must be really proud of themselves, NOT! I suppose they'll blame this on the MSAG too.
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disillusionedteacher
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Thanks, R. Thornton. All I can say is, most experienced staff could have predicted this anyway.
It's not quite the way it was presented to staff in a meeting though, a few months ago..........strange.
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