Four in 10 governors are not aware of how many pupils at their school are school-ready, a survey reveals.
In polling of school governors by early years charity Kindred Squared, shared exclusively with Tes, 39 per cent of respondents were either unsure or did not know how many pupils were on track to reach a good level of development (GLD).
This is despite prime minister Sir Keir Starmer making it a key target to have 75 per cent of children reaching GLD by the end of Reception - which is how the government determines school readiness - by 2028.
The findings of the survey, answered by 1,147 members of the governing board platform GovernorHub, have been published after the Department for Education released a data tool to provide schools with GLD targets.
Getting more children school-ready
Felicity Gillespie, director of Kindred Squared, said the government was right to identify the urgency of making sure that children are ready to start school.
But she added that there is “clearly a need for the official government measurement of school readiness to be more widely discussed by school governors, who provide vital oversight of primary schools”.
While 70 per cent of the governors surveyed reported that GLD is included in progress updates that they receive, Sam Henson, deputy chief executive of the National Governance Association, said that more must be done with this information.
“These findings highlight a critical opportunity for governing boards to strengthen strategic oversight at the most crucial phase of a child’s educational journey,” he said. “We must move beyond simply receiving information to actively engaging with what it means in practice.”
However, Mr Henson said the findings also highlight the issue of “how school and trust leaders, as well as central policymakers, work with and support governing boards, as it is about governing boards fulfilling their duties”.
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