Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Corporate Director of Education which was presented to provide Members of the Scrutiny Committee with an opportunity to scrutinise the findings of ongoing self-evaluation and business planning processes undertaken within the Education Directorate, across the Council and with key partners.

The Corporate Director of Education advised Members that this was a new report but some of the data would relate back to 2019-2020 as there had been a relaxation of the performance and data management arrangements, however, this was an updated report on the current position from a self-evaluation perspective. 

The Corporate Director of Education spoke to the report and highlighted areas where good progress had been made and where further improvement was required.

A Member referred to scrutinising 2019 data and enquired regarding the reason for this, as he felt that this data had already been scrutinised in a previous report.  The Corporate Director of Education reiterated there had been a relaxation in reporting arrangements. A report had been presented to Scrutiny on the Key Stage 4 results, in particular within secondary schools, however, they were based on Centre Assessment Grades (CAGs).  He pointed out that it was not possible to undertake stringent benchmarking linked to the fact that they were not externally verified results.

The Member raised concerns regarding the different methods of assessments and felt it was important that schools did not fall into a false sense of security moving forward.

The Corporate Director of Education said that the results achieved at Key Stage 4 were in line with targets set in the School Development Plans.  Future reports could include a connection between performance at Key Stage 4 against the School Development Plan, but the Council had to be cautious against holding schools to account against that data at this juncture.

A Member referred to paragraph 6.2 – Schools Causing Concern (SCC) and felt that the improvement work that these schools had undertaken over the last two years had not been recognised as Estyn had not been undertaking normal monitoring activity for some time.  The Corporate Director of Education said that both schools had raised this issue as Estyn monitoring visits had been put on hold, which meant that both schools continued to be in an Estyn category for a period of time. Schools Causing Concern meetings had been held and had highlighted that satisfactory progress had been made.  A meeting with Estyn had been planned and they had strongly indicated, dependent on any potential increases related to Covid, that monitoring visits would recommence in the autumn term, which would provide both schools with the opportunity to have their progress assessed by the Inspectorate.

A Member enquired regarding the areas for improvement, in particular, poor language acquisition skills in very young children and suggested a possible solution would be to increase pre-school and nursery provision across the borough.  He also enquired regarding the key area for improvement on school exclusions and commented that if school exclusions continued to rise and the number of pupils opting to self-educate increased, following Covid, it would be very difficult to improve attendance rates. 

With regard to nursery provision and early years the Director of Education said that appropriate Early Years provision was fundamental for strong acquisition of language at an early age to enable children to have a good start, which would impact on their education throughout all key stages.  The Director gave an example of one of the initiatives being taken forward, i.e. the new Glyncoed development as part of the 21st Century schools had attached Early Years provision.  Work was also being undertaken with schools, as part of the wider transformation programme, to ensure that Early Years provision was available across most of the school estate.

With regard to exclusions and attendance, the Director said that the type of approach used was important to retain learners within school settings.  There were parameters in place but exclusions were necessary on occasion, but only as a last resort.  He felt the most appropriate approach was around positive behaviour management and good policies and practices within schools and believed that consideration of a preventative approach to exclusions could have a positive impact on attendance across the board.

The Service Manager Inclusion commented that the Children’s Commissioners report looked at how exclusions at Foundation Phase could be significantly reduced across Wales.  In Blaenau Gwent, Primary school exclusions had increased over the last 3 years, and they were now looking at how to take the Children’s Commissioners report forward.  In relation to the connection between attendance and exclusions, the Service Manager said that exclusions did impact upon attendance figures.  The team were currently looking at a regional exclusion approach and taking some of the practices that were in place across the region to see how they could develop these practices for the benefit of Blaenau Gwent schools.

The Head of School Improvement & Inclusion added that regarding the development of the recovery and renewal plan, a key priority was to engage with young people, including those at risk of being excluded, to understand their circumstances and draw from that experience to help and support them to not become excluded.

In response to a Member’s question regarding double counting absenteeism, the Service Manager reassured Members that where a pupil was dual registered the attendance would only be recorded at the setting they attended on that day.

A Member referred to the low numbers of pupils who sat A levels last year and enquired if there was a percentage regarding the number of pupils sitting A levels that the Authority should be aiming towards.  The Director of Education said that as part of a Member Briefing session, Coleg Gwent had presented their overall data across the last three years, which demonstrated an increase in both the amount of learners who had undertaken A levels and also the amount of learners who had pursued vocational courses of study, he felt that one of the advantages of a tertiary model was the broad range of curriculum on offer.  There would be close monitoring of the amount of A level provision available with Coleg Gwent and that would feature as part of the Post 16 Partnership Board agenda.  He felt that the data Coleg Gwent had presented was encouraging and showed an increase in the amount of post 16 participation across the board and also recognised and acknowledged the amount of young people within Blaenau Gwent who were pursuing more vocational based learning provision. 

With regard to the learners choosing to take A levels, the Director of Education said there was a pattern across Wales, whereby the amount of learners choosing the A level route had reduced, so this was not unique to Blaenau Gwent. This would form part of the monitoring arrangements with the Post 16 Partnership Board and would ensure that data was brought back to Members as part of the Forward Work Programme via the Member Development section.

A Member referred to the gender gap and enquired why this was not an area for improvement.  The Director of Education explained that the list of areas for improvement was not exhaustive, the report provided a high level narrative of overall performance.  There was more work to be undertaken in relation to the gender participation gap and gender performance gap.  Males tended to perform less well in certain subjects and moving forward there would be a focus on a curriculum that is accessible to all learners e.g. STEM subjects i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the Directorate were working closely with Primary and Secondary schools and Post 16 to ensure that an attractive curriculum offer meets the needs and interests of both males and females moving forward.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1; namely that the report be accepted as presented.