Review of Key Stage 2 Strategies and Outcomes:Report for Slough Borough Council Education and Children’s Services Directorate

Slough Borough Council’s Education and Children’s Services Directorate commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to evaluate and review the area of key stage 2 performance in the borough’s schools. This focus for the review was chosen because, to some extent, key stage 2 outcomes appeared to have reached a ‘plateau’ over the previous four to five years, whereas performance in key stages 3 and 4 had clearly improved. This had occurred despite a number of interventions and support strategies being implemented in Slough’s primary schools. The formal aim of the project, therefore, was to carry out an independent overview of key stage 2 provision and outcomes in Slough, in order to make an assessment of any factors that might be inhibiting progress in this area, and to suggest any new or additional strategies that might enable improvements to be made. Information was collected using three main methods: a small-scale review of relevant national evaluations and guidance materials; and analysis, by NFER’s statistical group, of Slough’s school performance data; and, finally, interviews with six primary headteachers, one deputy headteacher and two LA officers.