Agenda and minutes

Rebecca Penn – Head Teacher of Charles Williams Primary School

The minutes were approved as a true and accurate record of the meeting held on the 6^th March 2018, subject to the addition of Rebecca Penn to the attendance list and the amendment of James Harris’ title.

Improvement Plan 6 – Ensuring the best educational outcomes for children

Attendees;

·                Andrew Powles – Assistant Head of Education – Engagement and Learning

Apologies were given from the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills and Chief Education Officer.

The Committee thanked the Officer his attendance at the meeting noting that he was covering for the Chief Education Officer.  It was noted that neither the Chief Education Officer nor the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills were able to attend. It was asked that in future every effort was made to attend to allow the Committee to receive responses from the most appropriate individual.

The Officer introduced the Objective and each of the measures to the Committee.

The Committee asked the following questions;

·                Why had overall education performance gone from GREEN STAR – EXCELLENT in the second quarter to GREEN in the third? Does the Officer believe that this would go back up in the fourth and final quarter?

          The Officer informed the Members that there had been issues with a long term sickness att Julian’s High School and this had effected performance overall within Education. The Officer then explained that this had been remedied by prioritising work at Llanwern High School and undertaking St Julians improvement during Quarter 4. The Officer believed that performance would increase to GREEN STAR – EXCELLENT in the fourth quarter.

·                What measures were in place to support schools in Red and Special Measures?

          The Officer advised that there were monthly categorisation meetings with red and special measures schools. These meetings were attended by EAS and Head Teachers from the School. Estyn had visited one of the schools in Special Measures and were happy with their progress.  Newport High was in receipt of their post action plan and we were meeting them for an update in the next month.

·                Does the Officer believe that the measures were challenging enough? What were the barriers to setting more difficult targets?

          The Officer explained that the targets were all robust and were created with the input from Head Teachers, EAS and how the schools were performing against similar schools across Wales. All of the schools accepted their targets at the start of the year and the directions of travel had been positive.

·                The Officer advised the Committee that during the spring time there had been high levels of sickness with Teachers and young people, however the department were pleased with the forecasted levels of attainment. There had been an increase in rates of exclusion, but this was due to serious behavioural issues that could only result in exclusion, such as an assault of a teacher or possession of a knife.

·                The Committee were informed that the Council had been busy developing alternative provisions across the City to ensure all young people had access to education services that were suited to their needs. The new Special Educational Behavioural Department was predicted to open in January 2019. Another option for young people excluded was a managed move to another school. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Overview & Scrutiny Officer advised the Committee that consideration of the Committee’s Draft Forward Work Programme was scheduled for the next meeting on 5 June 2018, when topics for inclusion would be discussed.

The Committee were asked to identify any areas that could be scoped for inclusion in the work programme for next year. Members noted the following potential areas for further consideration:

·       Attainment in schools overall;

·       Schools in red and special measures;

·       Free school meals and student deprivation grants;

·       Pupil referral unit;

·       Gwent Frailty Scheme;

·       Transition between Children’s services and Adult services;

·       Review of the Youth offending service;

·       Gwent based training academy for carers.

The Officer also drew Members’ attention to the pilot of the action sheet which detailed any information requested by Members at the previous Committee meeting held on 6 March 2018 and explained that this had been developed to track that all actions were completed. Members would be emailed the information shortly and the action sheet would be updated for each meeting.