Agenda item

To consider the report of the Corporate Director Education.

Consideration was given to the report of the Corporate Director of Education and the Head of School Improvement and Inclusion which was presented to provide Members with an opportunity to review the progress made against ALN reform and associated policy renewal.

The Head of School Improvement and Inclusion spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.

The Chair commented that it was an excellent report but felt that it should be highlighted in the report that ALN reforms strived for the best for all pupils including the more-able and talented. The Head of School Improvement and Inclusion agreed with the Member’s comments and explained that with the ALN reforms the more-able and talented young people would not necessarily be in receipt of an Individual Development Plan (IDP) and when looking at universal and targeted provision they needed to ensure that the practice going on in schools enables more-able children to thrive.  They were working with the ALN Service and the Educational Psychology Service to clearly set out the responsibilities for each of those areas to ensure when they go to schools they are not just looking at supporting those pupils who may be struggling, they are also looking at supporting pupils who really need to be pushed into having those enriched experiences.

A Member commented that the Act had been partially implemented since September 2021 and enquired if all the advice and guidance had been received to ensure that the code was being correctly implemented.  The Head of School Improvement and Inclusion confirmed that guidance had recently been received and training for Headteachers and Local Authority Leads for Inclusion had been undertaken.  However, there had been potential concerns regarding the guidance, particularly around parental guidance as this did not fit with the messages the Welsh Government had previously given.  Concerns had been raised and a response was currently awaited from the Welsh Government to confirm if this was the definitive guidance. 

A Member commented that a number of schools were working extremely well on maths, and pointed out that in some schools math pupils were being mentored, and felt a briefing could be considered sometime in the future to look at what schools were doing regarding maths.  He also commented on school to school working and how collaboration between schools was working well.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1; namely that the report, associated documentation and proposed course of action be accepted.