(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;

(b)

there was positive data linked to phonics however primary school results were mixed; in many areas, Plymouth remained below national averages;

(c)

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;

(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%.

(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)

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)

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;

(d)

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;

(e)

the Regional Schools Commissioner was unable to formally intervene with school standards until the school was judged by OFSTED as being inadequate.

(f)

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;

(g)

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;

(h)

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;

(i)

the Regional Schools Commissioner had no powers in influencing school recruitment;

(j)

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;

(l)

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

(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)

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;

(d)

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;

(e)

attainment was rising in primary schools however attainment levels were shown to be rising faster across the country.

(f)

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;

(g)

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)

the Employment and Skills Board was doing a specific piece of work focused upon readiness for work;

(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;

(j)

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)

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;

(l)

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

(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)

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;

(c)

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;

(d)

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;

(e)

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;

(f)

the Plymouth Oracy Project Dissemination Event was scheduled for Wednesday 3 April 2019; Members were invited to attend.

(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)

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)

a leadership training programme, which all secondary schools were involved in, focused upon leadership skills and leading projects within a school setting;

(d)

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;

(e)

the raising aspiration strand had a number of components including:

·          

Improving careers education, advice and guidance;

·          

Developing a wider city conversation on education;

·          

Increasing opportunities for employers and partners to work together.

(f)

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;

(g)

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;

(h)

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;

(i)

there was a potential role for Ward Councillors to communicate good news stories from schools;

(j)

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.

1.

STEM;

2.

The Plymouth Challenge Update – specifically regarding Leadership.

(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;

(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;

(c)

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;

(d)

all social workers had mobile technology however supervision recording was normally undertaken in an office setting.

·          

Bullying and attendance – Select Review;

·          

Child exploitation update;

·          

STEM;

·          

The Plymouth Challenge Update – Leadership.