Children in Medway have fallen behind on national learning standards.

Statistics show since the pandemic, pupils in the Towns have fallen behind in most markers assessing their abilities in reading, writing, and maths.

Schools in Medway are also seeing more absence and persistent absence, according to the data.

The expected standard for reading, writing, and maths in Key Stage One fallen by 2019's standards – the last full year children were assessed before Covid lockdowns interrupted testing.

For example, standards in writing fell from 2019's figures by 15% in Medway compared to 11% nationally, and standards in maths fell by 11% compared to 8%, respectively.

All expected standards in Key Stage Two except for writing followed a similar trend.

For example, last year, 66% of Medway's pupils met the expected standard of grammar, punctuation, and spelling compared to 73% nationally, which was also the percentage of Medway pupils hitting the standard before the pandemic.

The levels assessing progress in GSCE, English Baccalaureate, and A-level also fell below the national average.

Last year, 48% of Medway pupils achieved a 4 – equivalent to a C grade in the old grading system – or greater in English and maths, compared to 50% nationally.

Understanding of phonics at age six and seven – which is assessed in Years One and Two – was below the national average for both years.

Councillors were also given data from the 2020-2021 academic year for absences, permanent exclusions, and suspensions.

In this academic year, 13% of the school population in Medway was persistently absent, a 2% rise on 2019's figures

"In Medway, there is a difficulty with overall attendance figures..."

This compares with 12% nationally.

Councillors were able to ask questions about the figures during a meeting of the children and young people overview and scrutiny committee last Thursday.

Rebecca Smith, head of education at the council, said improving rates of absence would continue to be a priority for Medway."

She added: "There are a number of actions that we have taken to work with school leaders, including the Department of Education.

"A local attendance alliance is being set up at the current time working across Kent and Medway with a number of education leaders and organisations as a priority."

"Post-pandemic, we are remaining really vigilant this issue and are concerned that there doesn't seem to be the shift that we would like in particularly persistent absence but overall attendance figures as children have returned to school."

Chairman of committee, Cllr Barry Kemp (Con), said he was, "very disappointed that we are below the national average in virtually every category that's mentioned."

Cllr Martin Potter (Con), portfolio holder for education and schools, said the Ofsted framework for Medway schools showed the majority are rated 'Good' or 'Outstanding', but there are "a lot of challenges" with the performance measures.

He added: "If we look at where we were in 2019 on the key performance standards, we were above national on every measure other than at Key Stage Two, which had shown a very strong performance trend and was only 1% below national in 2019.

"All of that seems to have fallen away post Covid so there's a big recovery that needs to, and is, ongoing."