Agenda item

Debbie Anderson, Head of School Improvement and Early Years, introduced the report, which builds on previous ones and incorporates requests for more data as shown in the appendices, and highlighted the main points.

One of the two schools which was less than Good for Overall Effectiveness, Corpus Christi Catholic Primary, is now part of the Edith Stein Catholic Academy Trust, and at the time of conversion was moving in the right direction. The other school, Milton Park Primary, is due to convert to an academy on 1 December 2021; termly HMI visits have reported that it is improving.

Ms Anderson has made a second bid for funding for a second year of participation in the Hackney Learning Trust's Destination Reader programme. The approach is flexible so schools can roll it out to a particular class or a year group. ­­Visits to participating schools show it is successful. Eight further schools are taking on the programme, two are trialling Destination Reader Plus at Year 7 and one is adopting a programme tailored for KS1.

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Not all schools who were eligible for funding had accessed it but some has been secured to purchase resources to improve achievement in Phonics, up to and including KS4, in view of its importance as all teachers are teachers of reading. Schools have been made aware of the Systematic Synthetic Phonics programmes that will be validated by the DfE in March 2022. If schools adopt other phonics programmes they need to ensure the resources match robustly the phonics children are being taught.

Although EYFS moderation is no longer mandatory it is still offered. Education continues to support with recruitment, for example, Ms Anderson was on the panel to recruit a headteacher for Cottage Grove Primary even though it is converting to an academy on 1 December.

The HISP (Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Southampton, Portsmouth) Teaching School Hub has replaced the Portsmouth Teaching School Alliance. Early Career Teachers (ECTs) have replaced Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) and have a two-year development programme to which most schools have signed up.

About three peer reviews are planned before Christmas and others in the spring and summer. A group comprising three schools (one LA maintained, one from the ARK MAT, one from the University of Chichester MAT) will trial training programmes before they are disseminated across the Portsmouth Education Partnership (PEP). There is already a training video and now face-to-face training is being developed ready for trialling.

Pompey Literacy Pirates is expanding with a second hub planned from January 2022 and another 100 children will be offered places.

Ms Anderson is preparing training modules on the inspection process for forthcoming Ofsted inspections which are underway again.

Mike Stoneman added that much of this work is city-wide and many academies are involved as well as LA maintained schools. Education's Senior Leadership Team have recently agreed to carry out informal visits to maintained schools each term to keep in touch, check they are managing and see if they need any support.

In response to questions from members, officers explained

The only other school in the Edith Stein Catholic Academy Trust is Oaklands Catholic School in Waterlooville. There is not a lot of intelligence yet but early indications show that matters are improving. Oaklands have Leadership judged as Outstanding. The National Leader of Education work Corpus Christi received was from an Outstanding Catholic primary. There may be a different demographic in the Oaklands area but officers will work closely with the Trust, and the annual meeting with all the MATs is this term. Corpus Christi is part of the PEP and is using Destination Reader so the LA (Local Authority) is still keeping in touch with projects. Quite a high number of pupils from Catholic primaries in Portsmouth go to Oaklands.

The situation with waiting lists for CAMHS is similar both nationally and locally. A draft pathway to clarify the help available is out for consultation. People think they may need CAMHS support but other professionally backed support is available such as Kooth. Officers agreed staff recruitment is still a challenge but are addressing it as a priority.

As to whether face-to-face assemblies have resumed it very much depends on individual schools. Initially they returned as schools value assemblies but it depends on the level of Covid cases. Some schools hold hybrid assemblies with some children attending in person and others remotely though technical problems may mean children sometimes miss out.

With regard to measuring outcomes, evaluating success or noticing early indication of problems, there are currently no national standardised tests and benchmarking measures. Instead, schools will concentrate on the best quality teaching, learning and catch-up programmes, for example, phonics and Destination Reader which is based on good quality pedagogy. It will not be long before there are tests and measures again. However, at the moment schools have nothing to compare themselves with. PiXL is an organisation which puts schools in a family group so they can benchmark themselves against other schools. If not, officers have to track schools individually and they have been told they cannot use data for accountability. Sarah Hilditch, Lead Moderator, has already started training teachers new to Years 2 and 6 and appointing moderators.

Schools are funded for release time for mentoring and supporting Early Career Teachers.

By and large relationships with MATs are good (there are currently 13 and soon to be 14 when the University of Portsmouth takes on two schools). The policy is not to push schools into becoming academies and the remaining ones want to be LA maintained. The choice is only removed if a school is judged Inadequate or goes into special measures and is forced to become an academy. Frances Soul said the PEP meets MAT leaders and this half-term the focus is to ensure it has spoken to all of them so they feel they can contribute; ARK have already responded.

The Teach Portsmouth website and campaign has given teaching careers a high profile and is encouraging people, including teaching assistants, to consider teaching. Teachers are very tired because of Covid and there is concern there are fewer applicants for school leadership posts than previously. Schools have also had increasing difficulties recruiting teaching assistants as they are competing with organisations that offer more attractive wages and flexible hours such as supermarkets. The Mary Rose Academy in particular is struggling so officers are doing additional work to address issues in this sector.

The Chair noted that although the Education Advisory Board is primarily concerned with LA maintained schools, there are close relationships with the MATs and the LA invests beyond just its own schools, which is shown when people talk holistically about Portsmouth schools. However, the Board should be mindful of schools' autonomy when they become academies.

RESOLVED that the Education Advisory Board note the report.