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Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room B - Civic Offices. View directions

Contact: Lisa Gallacher Democratic Services Tel: 02392 834056  Email: lisa.gallacher@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

12.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.  Apologies for lateness were given for Alison Jeffery, Director of Children, Families and Education.   

13.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

Councillor Suzy Horton declared a personal interest as she is a governor at Craneswater Junior School. 

 

Councillor Neill Young declared a personal interest as he works for a speech and language therapy charity.

14.

Minutes of the last meeting - 3 July 2017 pdf icon PDF 138 KB

The minutes of the last meeting on 3 July are attached for approval. 

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 3 July 2017 be agreed as a correct record.

15.

Overview of the 2017 Provisional Results pdf icon PDF 259 KB

This summary provides an overview of 2017 provisional results for Portsmouth for headline attainment measures across all key stages.  The data is being used to inform the Portsmouth Education Partnership's Performance Dashboard and the prioritisation of schools for targeted school improvement support (refer to the separate report).

 

RECOMMENDED that Board Members note the provisional results for 2017 and how it is informing school improvement priorities for 2017/18 (refer to the separate report).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The report was introduced by Mike Stoneman who explained he also had some power point slides to show to the panel.  This could be made available to the board following the meeting. 

 

He explained that the results are still provisional and were based on data provided by the schools. The full set of validated data will be available in January.  There were some missing results for KS4 (comparison with national and Progress 8) which were expected next week. 

 

He explained that in 2016 a new primary assessment framework was introduced which introduced scaled scores and expected standards for KS1 and KS2.  A new accountability framework was also introduced for KS4 which included measures of performance (Progress 8 and Attainment 8).  In 2017 a new 9 to 1 grading scale was introduced for GCSEs replacing A* to G with 9 being the highest grade. The new grading system is being gradually introduced over the next four years, starting with English and maths exams in 2017.  All subjects will be under the new grading system by 2020. This therefore makes it difficult to compare results from previous years.

 

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile

Mike referred to the graphs in the presentation which showed that Portsmouth was well above the national average in 2015 in terms of the Good Level of Development (GLD) measure.  In 2016 national caught up with us although Portsmouth still showed a significant improvement.  In 2017 further improvements were made but again not as rapid as national - the gap is now only half a percentage point. In response to a question, Mike said that this wasn't a significant concern.  Ella Harbut, who is an Early Years Advisory Teacher and leads the moderation on the EYFSP is doing some investigation around this and providing support to those early years where there are concerns and this is fed into the school improvement board as part of the PEP arrangements. 

It is an encouraging picture overall.  Jo Peach added that they are investigating whether there are any trends but it does seem to be a mixed picture with no common pattern. Influx of EAL pupils could be part of the issue.

 

 

Phonics year 1 results

Mike referred to the graphs in the presentation which showed that in 2015 Portsmouth was well below national average.  In 2016 Portsmouth increased significantly and went above national.  In 2017 Portsmouth dropped below national. Mike said it was difficult to give a clear indication as to why there was a drop as there were no obvious patterns.  Jo Peach added that when this was looked into, some schools had performed particularly badly, some of whom are good schools, and other schools have done really well.  When the individual schools were investigated for one it was a case of an influx of EAL pupils and they were not ready for the phonics tests.  In some of the schools that had performed badly it was an issue of a lack of breadth of vocabulary which can really disadvantage  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

16.

Portsmouth Education Strategy 2017 - 2020

A verbal update will be provided due to the late closing of the consultation exercise.

Minutes:

Mike Stoneman gave a verbal update due to the late closing of the consultation exercise.  He reminded the Board that they had discussed the draft strategy at the previous meeting.  This had gone out to consultation which ended on 22 September.  The PEP is currently putting together a summary report of the responses received which will be going to the PEP Strategic Board on Monday.  Mike said he would circulate a summary of responses to the consultation to the Board. He explained that there had been a disappointing response to the consultation and more responses had been received from partners' e.g. colleges, health colleagues and the university rather than schools.  The PEP had already listened to feedback from the workshops with HTs and feedback from the groups set up so this has all fed into this.    Feedback overall has been very positive and have received feedback across all of the 10 objectives.  The PEP is now looking at how can strengthen the objectives in light of the feedback.  Feedback included:

 

·         Culture and international work came across as lacking within the overall strategy.

  • Public health and physical health - there is a separate strategy being developed under the Children Trust Board.  Therefore although they accept this feedback this will be reflected under a separate strategy.
  • Some comments that the strategy was not aspirational enough.  Mike said he would argue that it is ambitious but it may need to be more upbeat so the PEP is reflecting on this. 
  • Although a range of performance measures are given at back of the document, feedback was given that a section on how the PEP judge success should be provided at the front of the document in a succinct format.

 

Next steps

·         To produce summary of responses for PEP Strategic Board on Monday.

  • A revised version of the strategy completed for later this month and summary document produced.
  • The 10 strategic objectives will feature on the PEP website which is due to go live this month. Test version of website will be shown to the PEP Strategic Board on Monday. 

 

ACTION:

Mike Stoneman to circulate a summary of responses to the Education Strategy consultation to the Board. 

 

 

17.

Exclusion of Press and Public

That in view of the contents of the following item on the agenda the Committee is RECOMMENDED to adopt the following motion:

 

“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act, 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act, 1985, the press and public be excluded for the consideration of the following item on the grounds that the report contains information defined as exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972”.

 

The public interest in maintaining the exemption must outweigh the public interest in disclosing the information. Under the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) England Regulations 2012, regulation 5, the reasons for exemption of the listed items is shown below.

 

Members of the public may make representation as to why the item should be held in open session. A statement of the Council’s response to representations received will be given at the meeting so that this can be taken into account when members decide whether or not to deal with the item under exempt business.

 

(NB The exempt/confidential committee papers on the agenda will contain information which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties. Members are reminded of standing order restrictions on the disclosure of exempt information and are invited to return their exempt documentation to the Local Democracy Officer at the conclusion of the meeting for shredding.)

 

Item                                                                                             Exemption Para No.*

 

7. School Improvement Priorities Report - Appendix 1 only        paragraph 3

 

*Paragraph 3 -   Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Minutes:

 

The Chair advised that as long as members did not discuss the detail of the exempt appendix, the meeting could continue in open session. 

 

18.

School Improvement Priorities for 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 348 KB

This report provides an outline of the council's school improvement priorities for 2017/18 and an update on the targeted work undertaken by the Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance on behalf of the council to provide school improvement support to LA Maintained schools. 

 

Appendix 1 to the report has not been published as this contains exempt information and will be made available to the Education Advisory Board members at the meeting.

           

RECOMMENDED that members of the Education Advisory Board endorse the priorities for school improvement support for 2017/18 and note the support that was provided in 2016/17.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mike Stoneman introduced the report and circulated the exempt appendix which showed the PEP performance dashboard. 

 

It was explained that the council has a statutory duty for school improvement, particularly for LA maintained schools.   Currently 50% of schools in Portsmouth are LA maintained although it is expected over the next 18 months over 75% of schools will be part of a MAT.  Under the Academies Act 2010, LAs retain a legal responsibility for performance in the area as a whole. Therefore when a school moves to a MAT, as strategic commissioners the LA retains that responsibility.  This is why Portsmouth moved to the PEP to ensure that all work together to deliver positive outcomes across the city. 

 

Underneath the PEP is the School Improvement Board which the headteacher of St Edmund's chairs.  The Board includes headteachers from schools (there is one LA maintained headteacher and the remainder are academy heads) and local authority officers.

 

There are a range of performance measures that underpin the dashboard and there are provisional data for all measures and these are then RAG rated using criteria agreed by the school improvement board.  This then informs a prioritisation of schools. Currently for our LA maintained schools we have 12 schools that fall under priority 1 and 2 and they are the focus for this term.  For priority 3 schools, although these will not be targeted, the LA has said if they have concerns they can talk to the LA and can provide support.  With academy schools the LA does not give a priority rating.  In the annual meetings with the MATs they will go through data for each of the academies in that trust and seek assurances to see why any areas are rated red.  Look at how to share strengths across city and how this will benefit other schools.  Every school has a copy of their individual dashboard.

 

In response to a question, Mike explained if a school has an Ofsted grade of 3 or below, they automatically become a priority 1 school. When the LA send out the letters to schools, also enclose the school support directory which gives details of all system leaders operating across the city. 

 

Jo Peach added that they have not yet included the special schools within the dashboard however this would be published later this year.  The special schools were RAG rated last year to see what worked and different measures are needed for special schools.  This will include the Harbour School where because of the nature of the school several different measures for each of the sites are needed. Jo and Mike had a productive meeting today with the HT of Harbour about a range of performance reviews and where focus will be. 

 

Appendix 3 of the report provides an update on LA schools which Jo summarised.  In terms of successes she highlighted successes at Manor Infant which has moved from grade 3 to grade 2. 

Mike went on to explain that the Strategic School Improvement fund is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

19.

Date of next meeting

For the Board to agree when to hold the next meeting in the Spring term.

Minutes:

It was agreed that the next meeting be held in early February and a date would be circulated in due course.  Mike added that this would be a good time to bring a 6 monthly update on the PEP forward to the Board.