To consider school performance for summer 2013 and the school improvement partnership strategy and framework approved by the Cabinet Member for Young People and Children’s Wellbeing to improve performance for Herefordshire’s children and young people.

The Chairman commented that, despite recent legislative changes regarding free schools and academies, local authorities were still expected to monitor school performance and drew attention to the report ‘Back to school: Ways for scrutiny to influence local education and support school leaders to improve results’ published by the Centre for Public Scrutiny and the Local Government Association.

The Assistant Director Education and Commissioning, Children’s Wellbeing introduced the report, the key points included:

i.        The role of the local authority had changed but the Council still had an overall responsibility around education, including the quality and sufficiency of education and as an advocate for children and young people.  The role of, and demands on, school governors had also changed.

ii.       It was noted that the ‘Back to school report’ suggested topics for scrutiny of performance and it was commented that school performance could form part of the annual work programme of the Committee.

iii.      A number of headline figures were good, with some outstanding performance by individual schools and by individual pupils.  However, other figures were not where the authority or schools would wish them to be, particularly in relation to overall attainment at different key stages which were at or below national averages, and the progress of vulnerable groups compared to their peers where Herefordshire was in the bottom quartile in the country.

iv.      Attention was drawn to Appendix 1 to the report, ‘Herefordshire School Improvement Partnership Strategy and Framework to Improve Outcomes for Learners in Herefordshire 2013/14’.  It was reported that the Herefordshire School Improvement Partnership (HSIP) had been established in autumn 2013 and included representatives from Herefordshire Council, the Diocese of Hereford, the Archdiocese of Cardiff, and school leaders, governors and staff.  The strategy and framework set out a risk based approach, with schools assessed on a number of factors.  This facilitated dialogue with and between schools about actions to improve pupil performance.

v.       Attention was also drawn to the ‘Closing the Gap’ project which was an initiative to address the significant variations between groups of pupils, including pupils eligible for free school meals and pupils with English as an additional language.

vi.      It was reported that the resources available for school improvement had reduced over a number of years, with the service cut by 60%, partly due to the overall budget position but also because of the changing role of the local authority.  The HSIP provided an opportunity to generate a mutual approach to school improvement.

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Assistant Director advised that there were national descriptors of vulnerable groups, enabling comparisons to be made.  The authority had broadened the scope locally to look at any pupil that was at risk of not making the level of progress expected.

The Interim Head of Service gave the presentation ‘Summary Education Performance Herefordshire’ (as provided in Supplement 1 to the agenda) which provided an overview of performance against key measures.  The principal points of the presentation included:

Key Stage (KS) 5 (18  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53