To consider school performance of summer 2019 and make recommendations to cabinet on how the effectiveness of the school improvement framework and strategy could be enhanced.

The committee received a report from the head of learning and achievement (HLA) concerning the examination performance from 2019. The HLA introduced the report and provided the presentation attached as appendix 1.

The principal points below were raised by the committee in the debate:

·         It was requested that in future the presentation of the results in the report should be set against performance in earlier years to establish if there were any trends. The director children and families (DCF) explained that this detail was available and could be circulated after the meeting.

·         Performance in the primary phase was positive but there was concern over the performance in the secondary phase. The HLA explained that it was difficult to compare the results for the secondary phase over a number of preceding years due to the change in examination methods.

·         It was queried whether the council was funding the local National leaders in education (NLEs). The HLA confirmed that the council was helping fund the NLEs. The DCF explained that the school improvement team was a small resource and occasionally there was a need to ‘buy-in’ expertise.

·         The role of schools to support the mental health and wellbeing of pupils was raised and if there was concern regarding the provision of this support locally. The HLA explained that schools had a mental health lead and could provide counselling to pupils. There was also the provision of child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) which accepted referrals from schools. A selection of secondary schools had received funding to develop mental health and wellbeing provision; if the project was successful the provision could be introduced across all secondary schools from September 2020. The DCF highlighted the launch of the children and young people plan which had included examples of how the emotional wellbeing of pupils was being supported across the primary and secondary phases. It was explained that at a recent head teacher stakeholder event there had been a discussion on the need for greater work to be undertaken to define the mental health support that was available in the primary phase.

·         There was concern regarding pressures on local CAMHS and speech language therapy (SLT) services and the length of waiting lists. These were topics of importance to the scrutiny committee and were proposed as subjects of reviews in the forthcoming municipal year.

·         The performance of the multi-academy trust over the previous year was raised. The assistant director education development and skills (ADED&S) explained that there was assurance with the primary academies but the secondary academies were still posing some concern. It was acknowledged that a recent Ofsted inspection had contained areas of positivity with respect to the secondary schools.

·         The difficulty of recruitment for schools and the impact on standards of education was raised; it was posed that such difficulty would mirror problems in other sectors, such as the recruitment of social workers and health workers. The ADED&S explained that this was an issue for schools particularly small establishments. There was also concern with the retention of senior leadership teams and there had been a proposal to share teams across different schools.

·         It was queried how the performance of the project focusing on the progress of boys at key stage 4 would be measured. The HLA explained that the success of the project would be measured by the GCSE results achieved by the cohort, currently in year 9. Schools were required to report progress of the project to the Herefordshire School Improvement Partnership (HSIP).

·         Details of the Herefordshire Challenge were requested. The ADED&S explained that the project was in an early stage of development and matched funding was currently being sought. The project sought to support work with senior and middle leadership teams at schools and bring underperforming schools together in a bid to improve standards in the next 1 - 2 years.

·         The impact of the coronavirus and potential closure of schools was raised and how the impact on the summer exams could be mitigated. The ADED&S explained that current government guidance was that schools remained opened. Further national guidance would be acted upon but schools and pupils were currently continuing to prepare for exams and risk assessments were being completed. The secondary sector was well prepared for closures, the primary sector was making preparations and it was felt that special schools might need to close due to some of the underlying health risks that pupils at these schools may have. The DCF explained that there were concerns over the closure of schools and the impact on exams; revision and school work was more challenging from home. Schools were considering how to mitigate the impact of closures on the exam performance of students including remote working facilities. In the event of closures there was also a need to consider community support for children in receipt of free school meals (FSM), particularly where it was likely that the only hot meal such children were likely to receive was through school.

·         The numbers and nature of the group of children in receipt of FSM was queried. The HLA explained that the number of FSM children in full year cohorts of approximately 1,800 was around 200. The ADED&S explained that there were important subgroups identifiable in those children in receipt of FSM, including those with English as an additional language, and such subgroups were identifiable through data shared by schools.

RESOLVED: That the committee:

·         Notes the report and the good results in key stage 1 and key stage 2; and

·         Request that in future the presentation of the results is set against performance in earlier years.