Agenda item

[Brenda Wile, Deputy Director of Education, and Phil Leivers, Head of Service Educational Excellence, to present report]

 

This item is being considered as pre-decision scrutiny and will therefore not be available to call-in once a decision is made by the Executive.

 

The Chair invited Cllr Mike Hardacre, Cabinet Member for Education, to introduce the report.

 

The Cabinet Member thanked the panel for the opportunity and advised that the draft strategy is presented for both scrutiny and challenge. The views of the panel were sought to ensure that the approach to the development of the strategy document was appropriate.

 

The Cabinet Member highlighted that the strategy document should be seen in the context of a background of continuing and improving educational success in Wolverhampton schools. The Cabinet Member commented on the increase in the number of the number of schools rated as being either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

 

There is an expectation that the number of schools rated as ‘requiring improvement’ will be reduced further in the future. The Cabinet Member advised the Panel that the local authority has a duty to monitor the effectiveness of schools. The Cabinet Member commented on the positive working relationship with schools.

 

The Chair invited Phil Leivers, Head of Service Educational Excellence, to introduce the presentation.

 

The Head of Service outlined the background to the development of the strategy and how it links to the priorities detailed in the Relighting Our City Plan. The Head of Service commented on the importance of improving the opportunities for young people, both in their school environment, but also when they leave school and move on into further and higher education and employment. 

 

The current strategy replaces the previous School Improvement and Governance Strategy which has had a positive impact on educational results and standards in the City. The Educational Excellence Strategy intends to build on this success and has been extended to cover Early Years settings.

The Head of Service advised the panel that the service has consulted with school representatives to get their views on what elements of the current strategy should be kept and areas where changes are needed. The work was informed by several task and finish groups that included representation from the leaders in the early years, settings, and school heads. The approach to involve schools at the early stages of developing the strategy was welcomed in the reported feedback on the process.

 

The strategy will be presented to Cabinet for final approval before it is launched formally in September 2021. The Head of Service outlined the support that would be offered to schools based on their category and the criteria that would be used to determine this. All schools would get a minimum of one day of support from a School Improvement Adviser.

 

 

 

The Head of Service outlined further changes when compared to the previous strategy, for example a specific reference to offering induction to newly appointed Headteachers. The findings will be reported to the Regional Schools Commissioner and Ofsted for those schools whose educational performance is of significant concern. In such circumstances the Council might contact a high performing school to offer some support to a lower performing school.

 

The service is developing a performance dashboard to monitor maintained schools jointly with colleagues. The dashboard is primarily for use by headteacher, business managers and school governors as a compliance management tool. The dashboard will be regularly updated, and the information used to prioritise support offered to schools and will be made available to academies.

 

The Head of Service gave further details of the support that would be offered to teachers who are new to headship or those teachers who have moved into a Wolverhampton school from outside the city. The programme will also aim to support deputy heads as part of their preparation to apply for a future headship position. This is an important part of the overall succession planning which is necessary to maintain strong leadership in schools.

 

The Chair thanked the presenter and invited Brenda Wiles, Deputy Director of Education, to make a few comments before asking panel members to comment and or ask questions about the strategy.

 

The Deputy Director of Education commented on the positive view of the process in developing the strategy and highlighted the close working relationships between headteachers and the local authority during the process. This positive close working relationship is reflected in their role in developing the strategy document. The service is aware of the impact that the pandemic has had on children and young people in the city, and teaching and the non-teaching staff. The strategy is a good overarching document to begin the process of addressing gaps in learning over the next three years. The Deputy Director of Education endorsed the strategy and rated it highly when looking back over her career in education.

 

The Chair thanked the Deputy Director of Education for her comments and invited panel members to comment and or ask questions.

 

The panel were supportive of collaborative working and focus on building on good partnership arrangements during the development of the strategy.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge highlighted the important contribution and influence of community settings on educational outcomes of children and young people.

 

 

 

 

Cllr Collinge queried the role in school improvement advisors, and the teams around schools and wanted reassurance that schools will be able to act as critical friends to the Council if they do identify issues within the local community which is affecting the education setting and that there is process for reporting such concerns.

 

The Cabinet Member commented on the decision to bring together children’s service and education under a single director in recognition of creating a whole system approach to supporting children, young people and their families. The Cabinet Member accepted the importance of close working relations between schools and community support networks and the adoption of a whole system approach. The Cabinet Member commented on the benefits of bringing two previously separate leadership teams together into one leadership team.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge welcomed the commitment from the Council to listen and engage with local schools in order to strengthen relationships. The Deputy Director of Education commented that schools were not just seen as education providers, but equivalent to also like the contribution of other key partners such as health, who are members of a reference group. The group meet regularly to talk about the different challenges, which covers safeguarding issues. The Deputy Director of Education commented on the work of local strengthening family hubs and added that a key priority will be to build on the relationships between the network of these hubs and schools.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge queried the process for reviewing progress and educational outcomes and suggested that the strategy would benefit from setting smart targets for schools which set out what the Council expect them to achieve. The Cabinet Member commented on the work done to encourage schools and create opportunities to work with the Council to respond to the different challenges they face.

 

The Head of Service Educational Excellence commented on the importance of smart targets, which have been discussed with the Deputy Director of Education, in addition to performance targets schools have set for themselves. The service wants to progression on the improvement journey. At present 87 per cent of Wolverhampton schools are rated as being either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. The Head of Service Educational Excellence commented that would like to see all schools rated as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, but they may not all reach 100 per cent rating at the same time. A more realistic to aim would be to achieve 90 per cent of schools rated as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

 

The panel agreed that a progress report could be presented to a future meeting of the panel following the planned review detailed in the presentation.

 

The Head of Service Educational Excellence advised the panel that an annual report on the impact and progress of the strategy is being drafted and should be completed in January 2022.

The annual report alongside the school examination results data could also presented to the panel for discussion and comment.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge commented on the importance of the listening to the voice of students when developing the strategy document. The Head of Service Educational Excellence reassured the panel that when performance reviews of schools are done this will involve talking to the children and young people about their learning experience and if they feel safe in school.

 

Cabinet Member, Children Cllr Beverley Momenabadi, commented on the important role of school governors in school to holding schools to account and the training and support offered by the Council to be a critical friend. The Cabinet Member thanked the Head of Service Educational Excellence and Cabinet Member for Education for their contributions to the development of the strategy.

 

Cllr Wendy Dalton queried the lack of references in the strategy document to SEND training and support offered to schools. The Deputy Director of Education agreed to note the comment and report back to the panel. The Deputy Director commented that there is a separate SEND strategy document and reassured the panel that Council while prioritising academic outcomes there is also a focus on assessing how inclusive schools are in welcoming children with special needs and the progress made. In addition, the Council also has school improvement advisers who focus on the reviewing the provision of SEND and inclusion in schools.

 

The Council has responsibility for supporting SEND children and young people.

 

The panel suggested that a report on the service and the current offer, and the training offered to schools to support children SEND be added to the agenda for a future panel meeting. The Deputy Director of Education agreed to look at the issue and report back the findings to a future meeting.

Cllr Wendy Dalton expressed concerns about the lack of educational psychologists and the impact that this is having on parents needing support.

 

The Director of Children’s and Adults Services advised the panel that there was no shortage of education psychologists in Wolverhampton and the current resource compares well with other local authorities. The service has however experienced an increase in demand arising from referrals for Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans, where education psychologists would be involved in the assessment and review process. The service is offered as an additional option which schools can choose to purchase as it not a statutory service.

 

In addition, the Council also provides support to schools in managing issues around social and emotional behaviours among children and young people, which is supported by the work of the educational psychology service.

 

The Chair of the panel queried if there was a reference in the strategy document to mitigating against the effects of any future disruptions to children’s education as a result of Covid 19. There was also concern about the support offered to children that may be affected by having to learn remotely.

 

The Deputy Director for Education responded that the service has been impressed by the quality and improvements in the school emote learning packages over the past 16 months. In addition, there is evidence that schools are ready to adopt a blended approach to education where children have been sent home to self-isolate. In this situation children have been able to continue their learning. The Deputy Director of Education added that the Head of Service Educational Excellence leads the development of an extensive assessment package to understand the progress made by every child in terms of their learning. The package also includes an assessment of the social and emotional impact of the disruption caused by Covid 19 to children and young people.

 

The Deputy of Director of Education commented that in a recent meeting with the Head of Service Educational Excellence it was reported that findings from teacher assessments for reading development for children across Wolverhampton show an improvement. The findings suggest that some parents have been able to spend time reading with their children which has contributed to the progress. However, there is also an acceptance that some children have missed out on the curriculum and would have benefited from being in a school setting rather learning remotely at home.

 

Helen, a member of Wolverhampton Youth Council, expressed concerns about the actions taken by schools in preparation for a visit by Ofsted inspectors and the view that pupils are manipulated to behave in a certain way during the period which gives an unreliable picture. There was concern that inspectors do not get to see the actual behaviour of students and as a result their report will not lead to the necessary recommendations which can lead to an improved situation.

 

The Deputy Director of Education welcomed the comment and agreed that Ofsted judgements are limited in the areas inspected. However, the panel were reassured that when local authority reviews take place, they will cover issues such as student behaviour in addition to reviewing academic outcomes of a school.

 

Cllr Stephanie Haynes, queried work done to measure the effects on children who have had to study remotely, and the disruption caused by Covid 19 cases and restrictions in schools, and specifically what was being done to measure the social effects of children learning remotely. Cllr Haynes highlighted concern that for some children the home is not a safe place and impact on children in a ‘bubble’ being sent home in response to a Covid 19 case.

 

 

The Deputy Director of Education explained the policy advice to schools when a child has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive and advised that in this situation a child will be able to return to school after a negative PCR test.

 

The Deputy Director of Education reassured the panel that schools are very experienced in assessing how well a young person is doing and being in school allows teachers to monitor their welfare. However, when a child is working at home it will not be possible for schools to check on their welfare. The service works closely with social care colleagues, and early help services to monitor the welfare of children.

 

The Deputy Director of Education acknowledged the impact of home schooling on children’s education and development and accepted that it will difficult to measure due to the level of disruption caused and it is likely that the impact of Covid 19 will not be known for a long time. The Deputy Director of Education added schools have strong pastoral support teams and learning mentors to support children.

 

The Chair commented on the importance of listening to and engaging with young people to find out about their educational experiences. The Deputy Director of Education outlined the different ways for young people to share their views.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge queried the methodology used to select schools who were invited to be members of the consultation group involved in developing the strategy. The Head of Service Educational Excellence advised the panel that all school leaders were contacted and asked to nominate volunteers to represent the sector. The school leaders involved were a good representation of the different schools in Wolverhampton.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge requested more details about the reference in the strategy document to sharing the Team Around the Setting Dashboard with Academies detailed in Annex 5. The Deputy Director of Education agreed to consider how this offer could be promoted with schools.

 

Cllr Adam Collinge commented on issue of the increase in the number of children being home educated during the pandemic and queried how the strategy will support children in this situation.

 

The Director of Children’s and Adults Service commented that the panel previously considered reports on elective home education and the Council has responded to an earlier consultation proposed Government changes. There has been an increase in the number of children being home educated locally and nationally during the pandemic.  The Council is still waiting for an update from Government on any changes to the current home education policy.

 

 

The Director detailed the support available to families who are home educating their children, for example there is a dedicated officer that works with elective home educated families. The service only has a small number of parents who choose not to engage with the service, but there is a robust process to do necessary educational and welfare checks.

 

The Cabinet Member expressed concern about current arrangements and the limited powers for the Council to check on the progress of children being home educated, while supporting the decision of parents who choose this option for their children. The Cabinet Member advised the panel a letter was sent to the three MPs for Wolverhampton expressing their concern to the Secretary of State for Education.

 

The panel thanked the presenters for the report.

 

Resolved:

 

1.     The panel supports the aims of the draft Education Excellence Strategy 2021-24 and welcomes the inclusion on early provisions and the encouragement for greater collaboration and shared responsibility between the local authority and education providers settings, with the aim of improving outcomes for children and young people in Wolverhampton.

 

2.     The Head of Service Educational Excellence to present a progress report on impact of the strategy to the panel meeting in January 2022. The report to also include an update on the impact of the strategy and dashboard results and a comparison of educational attainment and outcomes by different education settings.