Agenda and minutes

None

The minutes of the meeting were approved as a true and accurate record of the meeting held on 5^th June 2018.

Education

Attendees:

-        Sarah Morgan – Head of Education

-        Andrew Powles – Deputy Head of Education

The Head of Education introduced herself, the Deputy Head of Education and explained the reason for the Cabinet Member needing to provide her apologies. The Chair and the Committee expressed their disappointment that the Cabinet Member was unable to attend. The Committee acknowledged that the Cabinet Member had not been able to attend the previous meeting which has meant that the Committee have not had the opportunity to discuss Education’s performance with the Cabinet Member, and undertake their role in holding the executive to account.

Members asked the Head of Education if there was scrutiny of EAS, if so how this was undertaken.  Local Authorities (LA) were accountable for standards of schools and schools were held to account.  Schools that were categorised as GREEN or YELLOW had earned a degree of autonomy, with schools that were in AMBER and RED being provided with additional support from the LA.  When Schools were identified AMBER or RED LAs were tasked to recognise this and respond appropriately.  Newport had four RED schools, who had meetings with the LA and EAS on a monthly basis and Amber Schools had six weekly meetings.  The Head of Service explained that once the schools recognised their position, and support was accepted the method of support worked well.

Members asked if GREEN and YELLOW schools were being properly monitored to ensure they were performing.  The Officer advised they were looking at performance in all schools and had tracking systems to measure results.   Schools were also monitored by the Principal Challenge Advisors with 25% of Challenge Advisors being Head Teachers.  The Officer stated she sat on the Welsh Regional Board which scrutinised other LA’s categorisation of schools. This, the Head of Service stated ensures schools across Gwent faced standardised categorising.

Members asked if EAS could improve the support for the schools to improve, were EAS giving the schools in RED enough support to bring them out of that categorisation, and how long would it take.  The Officer said if the schools needed additional support there were monthly meetings where any issues could be discussed, in addition to EAS Challenge Advisors providing schools in RED with 25 days of support. The 25 days were just a minimum and if required a school could receive more. The Head of Education stated that, as an example, St Julians school was on an upward trajectory, however, could not say when it would come out of special measures. 

Members enquired when Estyn carried out their monitoring, and did they give feedback to the Local Authority and the school?   The Officer advised that they give a commentary and the report was published on the website. 

Members expressed the view that the change in the examination system was unfair, particularly to pupils, and had a negative impact on performance The Officer stated the reason for the change had been to equip learners to be more employable. An example of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

a)       Forward Work Programme Update (Appendix 1)

b)       Actions Arising (Appendix 2)

c)       Information Reports (Appendix 3)

The Scrutiny Adviser presented the report to Members and outlined the purpose of the report in seeking the Committees approval for items on its work programme for the next two meetings.

The Committee approved the report and the items to be considered during the next two meetings.

Cllr T Watkins gave his apologies for the Committee briefing meeting on 17 July