Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Neill Young. 

Councillor Tom Coles declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest as he is on the Academy Advisory Board at Penhale Infant School.

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

The minutes of the last meeting are attached for approval. 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 3 July 2018 be confirmed and signed by the chair as a correct record. 

Mike Stoneman, Deputy Director for Children, Families and Education took members through the presentation slides included with the papers for the meeting.  He explained that the results would be validated in January.  The Council did not yet have the KS4 progress and attainment 8 scores. The KS4 results are based on the returns from the schools. It was anticipated that the KS4 results would be ready towards the end of the month. 

In terms of Ofsted judgements Portsmouth was now close to the national average for this with 85.7% of schools being judged as good or outstanding the national average is 86.1%.  There are no schools that are judged to be inadequate but the remaining 8 schools require improvement.  Mike referred to the two day inspection of Westover Primary School which is one of the schools that is requiring improvement.  

For Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Portsmouth had seen a very slight drop in the GLD measure from 71% to 70% which for the first time is now slightly below the national average.  Jo Peach added that this had been heavily skewed due to three schools.  However, the EYFS average point score is above the national average and the Council is putting targeted support in place for literacy which was contributing to the GLD drop.  

In terms of the proportion of pupils meeting the phonics standard in Year 1 the gap between Portsmouth and the national average has closed slightly as a result of 2% point increase from 77% to 79%, with national increasing by 1% point to 82%. 

Key Stage 1

KS1 reading at expected standard remained the same as last year at 74% with the gap to national reducing slightly.  For KS1 writing at expected standard there was a 1% increase but the gap to national has widened slightly due to a national increase of 2% points.  Mike added that the Council is working closely with schools through the moderation process and associated training / CPD.  Jo Peach added that they are confident that writing will improve and the improvement can be seen in pupils' books already.  There has also been strong attendance at CPD events.  KS1 maths at expected standard has remained at 73% and nationally this increased by 1% meaning the gap has widened. 

Key Stage 2

For the combined measure of Reading, Writing and Maths at expected standard there was a decrease of 1% which was a disappointment.  Mike explained that there were a variety of reasons for this and included a dip in maths and in specific schools.  Reading has improved by 1% this year however nationally this increased by 3% so the gap has widened.  Writing has also increased by 1%.  Maths has dropped from 71% to 68%.  The Portsmouth Education Partnership had predicted this and a bid was submitted to the Strategic School Improvement Fund for KS2 maths, but it was not successful.  A back up plan is in place working with Solent Maths Hub targeting 7 schools that have not engaged  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

The report was introduced by Jo Peach, Director of Learning at the Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance. 

School to School Support

There were 92 individual projects for all Portsmouth schools.  Jo explained that this is only work that has come through work that she is directing and does not include any work that schools are organising themselves.   77% of the projects were rated as green, 94% amber or green and 6% red.  For LA maintained schools there were 58 projects with 60% rated as green 86% amber or green and 11% red. 

There were 7 Ofsted inspections for local authority schools in 2017/18 and all remained as Good.  There were 30 maintained schools in 2017 and in September 2018 there are 24 maintained schools.  These have just been prioritised and 5 are rated as priority 1 and 5 as priority 2.  These will receive a lot of support. 

The Teaching School Alliance have supported 19 other schools who were not a priority.  Most of this has been done through Specialist Leaders of Education.  They have completed over 50 days of in school support and are leading the way in the region. 

School Improvement Priorities

Jo explained that there are five main priorities that will continue into 2018/19.  These are SEND in mainstream, closing the gap for disadvantaged pupils, improving outcomes for more able pupils, leadership and curriculum/subject specific support.  The SEND priority started in January and this work was ongoing. They have obtained some really useful information as to how to improve the quality of teaching and have received some great evaluations of this so far. 

Mike Stoneman added that the School Improvement Board met last week which had good representation. The PEP performance dashboard will be going out to schools next week.  Multi academy trusts receive the same information which informs the annual conversation. If there are areas of strength in a particular area the PEP will ensure these are shared across the city. There are 11 trusts that the LA will be meeting with.

Jo Peach added that where there is good practice taking place across the city the PEP are considering making the data public.  This will allow other schools to see what schools have particular strengths so they can ask for support from those schools if required.  Mike added that some of the issues are long standing issues and there are no quick fixes.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Thanks to Hilary Loder, Independent Chair of the PEP Strategic Board

The Chair advised this was Hilary's last meeting as Independent Chair and a new Chair would be elected.  Members and officers wished to place on record their thanks to Hilary.