No. |
Item |
41. |
Declarations on Interest
Councillors will be asked to make any
declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The following declarations of interest were
made by Members in accordance with the code of conduct:
Member
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Subject
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Reason
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Interest
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Mrs Nicky Williams
|
Minute
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She is a Parent
Governor at High View Primary and sits on the Plymouth Teaching
School Alliance.
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Personal
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Councillor Mrs Bridgeman
|
Minute
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She is
a Governor at Torbridge Primary
School.
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Personal
|
Councillor Mrs
Johnson
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Minute
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She is a Governor at
Compton Primary School.
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Personal
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Councillor Winter
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Minute
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He is a
Governor at Marine Academy Plymouth.
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Personal
|
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42. |
Minutes PDF 88 KB
To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting
held on 6 February 2019.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Agreed the minutes of the
6 February 2019 Education & Children’s Social Care
Overview and Scrutiny Committee as an accurate record of the
meeting.
Under this item a further request for
information relating to the Gatsby benchmarking criteria, as raised
at the 6 February 2019 meeting, was made.
|
43. |
Chair's Urgent Business
To receive reports on business which in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought
forward for urgent consideration.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
There were no items of Chair’s Urgent
Business.
|
44. |
Progress Report on School Standards PDF 37 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for
Education, Skills and Transformation), Judith Harwood (Service
Director for Education, Participation and Skills) and David Bowles
(Head of Education, Participation and Skills) presented the
Progress Report on School Standards.
The following key points were highlighted to
Members:
(a)
|
the report set out the analysis of data from
2018 and included information upon attainment, schools considered
to be below national averages or coasting and an update on the
OFSTED judgement;
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(b)
|
there was positive data linked to phonics
however primary school results were mixed; in many areas, Plymouth
remained below national averages;
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(c)
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secondary school data showed little signs of
improvement and on the whole figures showed that results remained
below the national average – key themes highlighted that the
gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils was still evident,
as well as the gap in attainment between boys and girls;
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(d)
|
there were currently 4 secondary schools and 2
primary schools which were identified as being below ‘floor
standards’ (this was a minimum standard set by the
government) and were in danger of being classified as coasting;
two primary schools and 3 secondary
schools were already classified as coasting;
|
(e)
|
in terms of the
OFSTED judgement, 74.3% of primary schools in Plymouth were
assessed as being good or better; this was below the national
average of 89% however the gap wasn’t as significant as at
secondary school level where 47% judged good or better where
national average is 80.3%.
|
|
|
Order of Business
With the permission of the Chair the order of
business was changed as reflected in the minutes.
Additional documents:
|
44a |
Regional Schools Commissioner PDF 105 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Lisa Mannall (Regional Schools Commissioner
for the South West) provided Members with an update on her role and
responsibilities and answered questions.
The following key points were highlighted to
Members:
(a)
|
as Regional Schools Commissioner for the South
West, Lisa was able to raise the status of concerns of secondary
schooling in Plymouth; she met with the Rt. Hon Nick Gibb MP
(Minister of State for School Standards) before Christmas and he
agreed to speak at a school improvement conference in the city and
was keeping abreast of work undertaken to raise standards;
|
(b)
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Lisa’s team was working hard with the
South West Teaching Schools Council to support a targeted group of
schools, specifically standalone academies and very small multi
academy trusts, by using an underspend of the budget to help
specific schools in Plymouth to improve their self-evaluation
processes and plan strategically for school improvement;
|
(c)
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work was ongoing to develop a professional
learning model whereby nationally recognised educational leaders
were brought into the city to provide CPD. Most promotions in Plymouth secondary schools were
internal therefore Lisa’s team were working to get people
from outside of the city to work in the schools;
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(d)
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work was ongoing to provide established MATS
into Plymouth to raise standards; national providers were
encouraged to get involved in Plymouth but there was no interest
due to poor transport links;
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(e)
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the Regional Schools Commissioner was
unable to formally intervene with school standards until the school
was judged by OFSTED as being inadequate.
|
In response to questions raised it was
reported that –
(f)
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the Plymouth Challenge was not awarded any
funding, unlike the London Challenge previously, as money was no
longer available therefore improvements needed to be made, and
could be made, within the current system with strong
leadership;
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(g)
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the Teaching Schools Alliance was successful
in its bid for strategic bid money for phonics and improvements
were already evident; the bid set out what money was required and
what research was provided to prove that improvements could be
made;
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(h)
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training for governors had not progressed
since the school system had changed and information upon data and
standards was not considered sufficient to enable governors to
undertake their role effectively;
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(i)
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the Regional Schools Commissioner had no
powers in influencing school recruitment;
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(j)
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Lisa Mannall was a home worker based in
Newquay however had a team of 54, with 45 people based in Bristol
and others based in London in the Department for Education; her
boundary of responsibility was from Land’s End to
Gloucestershire however she was in Plymouth approximately once a
month. Lucy Gordon, Deputy Regional Commissioner for the South
West, spent more time in Plymouth;
|
(k)
|
she believed that schools needed leaders that
were capable of leading and who were able to work in collaboration
with other schools to improve;
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(l)
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as Regional Schools Commissioner,
Lisa visited all academies over a 2 year cycle; she advised Members
that funding was available for schools that were judged as
‘requires improvement’ ...
view the full minutes text for item 44a
|
|
44b |
Raising Standards/Attainment Levels PDF 140 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for
Education, Skills and Transformation), Judith Harwood (Service
Director for Education, Participation and Skills) and David Bowles
(Head of Education, Participation and Skills) presented the Raising
Standards/ Attainment Levels report.
The following key points were highlighted to
Members:
(a)
|
as well as working with the Regional Schools
Commissioner, Plymouth was taking a local council based approach to
attracting outstanding leaders to the city whereby it was adapting
internal economic development pieces of work to promote a positive
image/ positive stories of Plymouth;
|
(b)
|
the report
contained detailed figures at the request of Members, an addition
to the report focused around key stage 4 data (secondary schools)
specifically regarding 15-16 year olds. Key measures for 2018, in
comparison with 2017 data, showed little sign of improvement,
specifically in terms of progress made by young people in Plymouth
in comparison to other young people across the country;
|
(c)
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assessing pupil premium data, as the broadest
measure to capture young people who were in disadvantaged areas,
highlighted that these young people were not performing as well as
those children who were kin more affluent areas in the city;
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(d)
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the gender gap in attainment levels between
boys and girls was recognised to emerge very early in primary
school and continued throughout education to secondary school;
girls were seen to make more progress in Plymouth;
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(e)
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attainment was
rising in primary schools however attainment levels were shown to
be rising faster across the country.
|
In response to questions raised it was
reported that –
(f)
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schools were working hard to address the
gender gap between girls and boys; schools had their own programmes
to develop skills in reading, writing and maths;
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(g)
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whilst officers
included detailed figures in the report at the request of the
Chair, it was recognised that this made the information more
challenging to understand; also the removal of percentages removed
the ability to compare data from previous years. Officers advised
that they were in the process of finalising a ‘data
book’ which contained the Council’s performance data in
comparison with that of regional statistical neighbours; this data,
on the whole, was set out in bar charts and tables and it was
considered that this would make it easier to read;
|
(h)
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the Employment and Skills Board was doing a
specific piece of work focused upon readiness for work;
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(i)
|
the report also included data of service
children who were in receipt of the pupil premium; officers advised
that this information was also available as split per school;
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(j)
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attainment figures of children home schooled
across the city were not included in the report as this was outside
of the Council’s system;
|
(k)
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it was difficult for officers to ascertain if
attainment levels had dropped since the creation of academies and
free schools as the measures set by the government to judge
attainment had changed;
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(l)
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overall 88% of maintained schools were judged
as good or outstanding; all special
schools were judged as good ...
view the full minutes text for item 44b
|
|
44c |
The Plymouth Oracy Project PDF 190 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Ruth Woodhouse (Director of Plymouth Teaching
School Alliance) presented the Plymouth Oracy Project Update.
Key points highlighted to Members included the
following:
(a)
|
a description of Oracy was provided to
Members: “Oracy is what schools do to support the development
of children’s’ capacity to use speech to express their
thoughts and communicate with others in education and
life”;
|
(b)
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the Oracy Project was delivered to 50 primary
and secondary schools citywide and was created in response to a
correlation between poverty and language development and
learning;
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(c)
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the remit and results of the project were the
responsibility of the Department of Education (DfE) and the project itself was fully funded by a
DfE CIF bid which was approved in
2017;
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(d)
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the University of St Mark and St John was in
the process of assessing the impact of the Oracy Project; from a
coordinator perspective, all milestones has been achieved and the
project was rated as green;
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(e)
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as a result of the project, children in early
years were seen to have accelerated communication in speaking and
improved listening and disadvantaged pupils were making better
progress in school; attendance had also improved;
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(f)
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the Plymouth Oracy
Project Dissemination Event was scheduled for Wednesday 3 April
2019; Members were invited to attend.
|
In response to a question raised it was
reported that the full evidence report would set out the projected
outcomes and successes of the Oracy Project – this would be
shared with Members once available. The project itself had received
positive feedback and some Plymouth teachers were due to visit
London shortly to see outstanding practice.
Members praised the hard work and success of
the Oracy Project and thanked Ruth Woodhouse for her attendance at
the meeting.
Members requested to receive the Oracy Project
evaluation reports once finalised.
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45. |
The Plymouth Challenge Update PDF 113 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for
Education, Skills and Transformation), Judith Harwood (Service
Director for Education, Participation and Skills) and David Bowles
(Head of Education, Participation and Skills) presented the
Plymouth Challenge Update report.
Key points highlighted to Members
included:
(a)
|
the Plymouth
Challenge had 3 strands: raising standards, leadership and
aspirations. The first two strands were led predominantly by
secondary schools, with the third strand,
‘aspirations’, being led by the local authority;
|
(b)
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the Challenge was launched in February 2017
and had been running for a year with the focus on the first year on
developing the governance and programme of work; co-ordination
governance still required some improvement however it was
considered that the two strands led by secondary schools (raising
standards and leadership) needed a closer connection with the
Plymouth Education Board;
|
(c)
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a leadership training programme, which all
secondary schools were involved in, focused upon leadership skills
and leading projects within a school setting;
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(d)
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the Education Development Trust had a Peer
Review Network which was viewed as an add on to OFSTED inspections;
it was more of a friendly challenge from peers within the city and
outside and was a way of pulling in expertise in Plymouth;
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(e)
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the raising aspiration strand had a number of
components including:
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·
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Improving careers education, advice and
guidance;
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·
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Developing a wider city conversation on
education;
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·
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Increasing opportunities for employers and
partners to work together.
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In response to questions raised it was
reported that –
(f)
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officers were making use of the
council’s social media channels to promote positive stories
of Plymouth, including educational standards and events –
good news stories were sent in and they were posted online;
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(g)
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the local authority had supplemented the
leadership challenge from the dedicated schools grant as it was
originally only rolled out to 12 of the 19 secondary schools in the
city;
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(h)
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the council had
launched the new approach to intervention and challenge in schools
– this had an in-depth action plan that went alongside it and
it was hoped that this new approach would help with leadership
issues, involving both governors and head teachers. The council had
the role as champion for children in the city so was able to
communicate with schools before the involvement of the Regional
Schools Commissioner;
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(i)
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there was a potential role for Ward
Councillors to communicate good news stories from schools;
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(j)
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there were some head teachers and governors in
the city who did not recognise, for a variety of reasons, that they
needed to join the collective ‘will’ to make
improvements to their school.
|
The Chair thanked the Cabinet Members and
Officers for their attendance at the meeting.
It was requested that the following would be
included on the Committee’s work programme for 2019/20:
1.
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STEM;
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2.
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The Plymouth Challenge Update –
specifically regarding Leadership.
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46. |
OFSTED Inspection of Children, Young People and Families Service - to follow PDF 46 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for
Education, Skills and Transformation) and Neelam Bhardwaja (Service
Director for Children, Young People and Families) presented the
OFSTED Inspection of Children, Young People and Families Service
report.
Members were advised that the OFSTED
Inspection report was published on 7 January 2019; the overall
rating was judged as ‘requires improvement’ however of
the 16 authorities assessed, only 2 were deemed to be good with the
other 14 being judged as ‘requires improvement’.
In response to questions raised it was
reported that –
(a)
|
the quality of services to care leavers was
something officers were currently working to improve; it was
considered that the structure of the service did not lend to
effective working therefore, after consulting staff, teams were
more integrated;
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(b)
|
a part of the
OFSTED judgement related to the level of recording and evidencing
and its significance; it was important that a child in care was
able to see their life story however a succinct summary was
considered more beneficial. Inspectors highlighted that social
workers had referred to supervision meetings however supervision
records did not clearly set out the direction or progression of the
case of the child. Managers had been tasked with establishing if
there were specific barriers preventing adequate recording of
supervision and if training was required;
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(c)
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good housekeeping and recording was accepted
as being an important factor of success as well as a safeguarding
issue; it was considered that high workload had an impact upon the
paperwork aspect and further work was required to be done to manage
staff pressures and workloads;
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(d)
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all social workers
had mobile technology however supervision recording was normally
undertaken in an office setting.
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The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member and
Service Director for their attendance.
Members requested a further update on the
OFSTED actions plans is provided to the Education and
Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee in the
future.
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47. |
Together for Childhood Update - to follow PDF 443 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair advised Members that the Together
for Childhood Update was added to the agenda as an information only
item.
Members noted the update and agreed to keep
Together for Childhood on the work programme for 2019/20.
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48. |
Work Programme PDF 136 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Members agreed to include the following items
to the work programme for 2019/20:
·
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Bullying and attendance – Select
Review;
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·
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Child exploitation update;
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·
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STEM;
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·
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The Plymouth Challenge Update –
Leadership.
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49. |
Tracking Resolutions PDF 173 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Members noted the tracking resolutions
document.
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