Agenda item

[Phil Leivers, Head of Education Excellence, to present report]

The Chair invited Councillor Dr Mike Hardacre, Cabinet for Education, Skills and Work, to make some introductory comments on the report. The Cabinet Member advised the panel that because of the changes made to the exam assessment arrangements it will not be possible to compare current educational performance with previous years.

The Cabinet Member commented on the extent of the disruption to children’s educational because of the pandemic and added that this should be considered when future reports on educational performance are presented to the panel.

The Cabinet Member commented on the important role of school governing as they are responsible for the vision and strategic direction of the school, the proper and effective use of the school's financial resources among other responsibilities. The Cabinet Member highlighted the limited ability of the local authority to intervene where there are concerns about the performance of academies and this should be noted when commenting on the report findings.

The Chair invited Brenda Wile, Deputy Director Education, to present the detailed report to the panel. The Deputy Director of Education commented that the performance of schools in 2020 and 2021 should be seen in the context of the impact of measures introduced in response to Covid 19 during this period.

The Deputy Director of Education commented on the different periods when schools were either closed or pupils attending had to meet specific criteria during the pandemic and advised the panel that they were only reopened fully in March 2021. The majority of pupils were either educated at home or taught remotely prior to this period.

The Deputy Director of Education commented that the number of Covid 19 cases in school remain high and is most prevalent amongst young people, which has significantly impacted on their education, during the last few weeks. There are signs however that the situation is improving but some schools have reintroduced remote learning for some groups were there was insufficient staff available either because they tested positive or were isolating. 

The Deputy Director of Education praised the response of teachers and schools in providing remote learning opportunities and commented on how well children embraced and adapted to different ways of learning. The Deputy Director of Education commented on how some children has benefited from the experience of remote learning and added that this will help them become more flexible learners in the future. The learning from providing remote teaching during the pandemic will also enable schools to offer support for children who cannot attend school due to health or other reasons.

The Deputy Director of Education advised the panel that the DfE suspended all public examinations and assessments for the 2019 2020 academic year, and last year, replaced GCSE and A levels with teacher assessed grades.

The Deputy Director of Education advised the panel that safeguarding inspections were maintained if concerns were raised.

The Deputy Director of Education advised the panel that report does not contain individual school level results as the information legally can only be published if they have been validated and with the agreement of the school.

The Deputy Director of Education added that all schools were visited during the autumn period and there were discussions between school leaders and members of the school improvement or education excellence team. The panel were reassured that there was rigorous scrutiny of teacher assessments. The Deputy Director of Education gave an overview of how Wolverhampton schools performed against the West Midlands and England averages, in terms of the GSCE results and advised the panel that there was a slight improvement on the results from previous years. 

The Deputy Director of Education commented on the post 16 education results and in response to concerns a wholesale review of post 16 provision across the city is planned. The Deputy Director of Education suggested the review may conclude that there is a need to offer young people a broader range of A Level subjects, but accepted this provision demands a high level of teaching commitment but was confident that this could be done. The review will also include reviewing the college offer. The Director of Education advised the panel that the plan is bring together a group of headteachers to work together to review post 16 provision across the City with the aim of preparing young people to be employed in the jobs that are expected to be available in the future.

The Deputy Director of Education briefed the panel about the main findings Oftsed judgements as of January 2022 and reported that (95)85 per cent of Wolverhampton schools were judged to be either Good or Outstanding and no schools were rated as Inadequate.

The Deputy Director of Education gave details of the range of strategies used to support schools. The education excellence team visit schools at least once a year as part of a service level agreement, which may also include providing extra support. The level of support offered is proportionate to need of the school.

The Deputy Director of Education briefed the panel about recent changes to the school improvement expenditure grant which will end from the start of financial year 2023-2024. To allow schools to adjust the change the grant will be reduced to fifty per cent of the current amount on a per school basis in 2022-2023. The Deputy Director of Education added that a consultation with maintained schools is planned on the changes.

The Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Work commented on the issues caused by late notification by Government of the decision to reduce the current grant by £80,000 before a meeting  with members of the Schools Forum.

The Cabinet Member supported increased choice for young people at post 16 to pursue their preferred interests and highlighted the importance of quality provision..

The panel expressed concern that the use of average attainment score per pupil may overlook areas requiring attention and support. The Deputy Director of Education agreed with the concern of the panel and offered reassurance that work is planned to get more details from schools to help develop better measures of educational attainment and an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of pupils. 

The panel welcomed the performance of young people at Key Stage 4 and wanted to record their congratulations on the results for Wolverhampton achieving better scores compared to West Midlands and England averages. 

The panel queried the reasons for reduction in the proportion of pupils achieving grades 9 – 5 pass in english and maths compared with the results for England and the West Midlands average and the lower scores English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

The Deputy Director of Education advised that the results are based on information collected over the of the autumn term and in-depth analysis has not been done to understand the reasons for the lower scores for english and maths. The Deputy Director of Education offered to attend a future meeting of the panel to give a more detailed explanation of the results in response to the concerns raised.

The Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Work thanked the panel for the comments about the report and offered his thanks and congratulations to teachers, schools, parents, and young people about how they managed the disruption to the education sector caused by the pandemic.

The panel thanked the presenters for the report.

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to endorse the report detailing progress made to improve the educational performance of schools in Wolverhampton.

2.    The panel wanted to formally place on record their congratulations to everyone involved in achieving the results detailed in the report.