Agenda item

To receive the summarised performance of children and young people in Croydon schools for the academic year 2017/2018.

The Head of Standards, Safeguarding, Learning Access and Inclusion introduced the report and pointed out the key aspects of the report which included the following:

• Early Year Foundation Stage (EYFS) outcomes had been above the national average for a number of years and were in line with the London average.
• Vocational outcomes at Level 3 remain high
• Ofsted outcomes had been positive with a school moving to good status and one from good to outstanding.
• The improvement programme and partnerships with schools were robust
• Working on recognised key areas of development
• Key Stage 5(KS5) outcomes remain a challenge with gaps to be closed between the highest and lowest achieving schools.
• Challenge to close the gaps in outcomes by gender and ethnicity.
• The Looked After Children (LAC) cohort improvement had risen but more work still to be done
• Continued progress to be made to increase the number of personal education plans for LAC which is linked to outcomes

The report also included the next steps which were the following:

• Inclusion funding
• Maintaining of resources
• Maintaining places in mainstream education for SEN children.
• Funding a curriculum conference to take place to ensure good practice and steps being taken to closing gaps for boys and ethnic group through all key stages.
• Continued improvement to personal plans for LAC

A Member asked what was being done to address instances of persistent absence in schools. Officers responded that in the last year a team around a school approach had been developed. Officers had been allocated to schools where instances of persistent absence and high rates of fixed term inclusions had been identified. Officers had been looking at data and working with a number of schools and this work would continue to be rolled out to more schools. Through work with independent officers and visits to schools they were raising the profile that this was an issue which was a priority and measures had to be taken to achieve improvement.

It was further commented by a Member that some Boroughs were investing in breakfast and after school provision to tackle issues of persistent absence. Officers responded that there were some schools in the Borough that offered this service. What was important was for schools to look at the barriers to getting children into school and putting measures in place to combat the barriers. The development of the Early Help Strategy would be key to achieving these improvements.

A Member questioned what the identifying factor was and what work was being carried out in the three schools that were reported to have a high number of exclusions. Officers advised that in all of the schools there were individual factors that led to the numbers reported. One of the schools did not have an historic high rate of exclusion and the figure was high as a result of one serious incident that resulted in a number of pupils being excluded. Intervention work with the police was taking place. In another of the schools a factor was leadership and there was now new leadership in place and officers were working closely with the school, with discussions held on strategies to be adopted to tackle prevalent issues.

A Member raised concern that in key stage 5, there was a return to a model that included large providers and its was fundamental to avoid a situation that would result in a curriculum in schools that was not broad enough or a risk of larger classes sizes in some subjects and not others. Officers responded that conversations were being held with schools on their curriculum offer and for them to ensure that their offer was viable. Schools also needed to engage in a dialogue with pupils, supporting them in making the right choices and ensure that they were following the right pathways. Officers in the 14-19 team were working with colleges to improve figures, focusing on encouraging young people to get the right advice and guidance before they reach post 16.

Further concerns were raised by a Member that the competitive element, that was brought in a number of years ago, which allowed schools to extend their provision beyond age 16 through the viability of subjects had diminished, with a closure of Sixth Form provision in one school experienced. Concerns had been flagged up by officers themselves in recent years about the unviability of Sixth Forms. The Member was under the impression that schools had been working in partnership to ensure the viability of subjects was taking place and it was disappointing that this may not be happening.

Officers took on board Members’ comments and acknowledged that conversations needed reigniting on the viability of Sixth Forms. What was clear was that the local authorities wanted to ensure that there was provision for children to have the opportunity for further study in their area of choice.

The Head of Standards, Safeguarding, Learning Access and Inclusion   agreed to take away the comments raised and to reflect on this matter with the officer responsible for post 16 provision. Additionally a briefing would be provided for the Chair on this matter to enable discussions to be held on how this item would fit into a future work programme of the Sub-Committee. 

A Member observed that Octavo and their service had been mentioned in the report and asked how the progress of schools that did not buy into the service was monitored. Officers responded that it was important for schools to ensure that they bought into a service to ensure that they were receiving support and this could be from any provider of their choice. Two link advice session took place each year on school improvement and outcomes. They looked at the impact of support with questions asked of schools such as how they were ensuring the quality of the support provided from the services they bought into. The same questions on areas of development were asked of all schools in the borough regardless of their Ofsted ranking.

In response to a Member question about Statistical Neighbour Averages and what learning could be derived from the data, its usage as a comparative tool and if actions of other boroughs were used as a provision of quality insight, officers said that conversations were taking place about its usage. Officers further responded that a head of service meeting took place with colleagues across London to share practice but that these meetings needed to be further developed.

A Member further commented that this comparative information would be beneficial for schools in terms of benchmarking and for them to track their progress against similar types of school. Officers said that some of information has been shared with Chairs of Governors to better enable them to further support and challenge practices as appropriate.

A Member questioned how the Council managed engagement with schools in academy chains and were there performance concerns with any of the chains. Officers responded that they dealt with instances of non-engagement on an individual basis and there were some schools that engaged and other that did not. The approach for all schools was that if there was a lack of compliance from a head teacher, dialogue would take place with the CEO of the trust as focus was on outcomes and challenge would be presented to schools regardless of the type of school they were, Further concerns were shared with the Regional Schools Commissioner where necessary.

Officers were thanked for their attendance and responses to questions

Information request by the Sub-Committee

• Briefing note on viability of Sixth Form provision to be provided to the Chair by May 2019

The Sub-Committee came to the following Conclusions:

1. The report was thorough and informative.

2. There were concerns regarding the viability of Sixth Form provision and further information was required in order for the Sub-Committee to plan its inclusion in the future work programme.