Agenda, decisions and minutes

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None

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

Approved

Resolved that the Minutes of the Education & Skills Corporate Delivery Committee held on 28 September 2022 be approved and signed as a correct record.

For Infomation

Helen Morgan-Rees and Councillor Robert Smith spoke further to the report, presentation and discussion at the previous meeting and gave a brief overview relating to the background of the work done in Swansea in developing and building the strengthening school leaders programme.

They outlined the complimentary approach taken in Swansea that works alongside both the regional Partneriaeth leadership programmes and Welsh Government initiatives.

A handbook is being developed that focuses on developing new and acting leaders in Swansea.

David Thomas and Rhodri Jones gave a detailed presentation which outlined and covered the following areas:

·       Working relationship and excellent links with Partneriaeth/Welsh Government and support given to both regional and national approaches to improvement;

·       Work of the school improvement advisors;

·       Weekly Education Dept e mail/newsletter to all schools which covers various topics and information and is now available to all school staff;

·       School support visit agenda – planning for professional learning for new staff and development of current staff into middle leaders;

·       Each school gets one per term from the school improvement advisors;

·       Key focus of these visits which is built around Welsh Government’s guidance around leadership, teaching and wellbeing;

·       Feedback and data from these visits which can include consultation with individual pupils and pupils groups;

·       Distributed leadership scheme and the focus and aims of the scheme for senior leaders to develop and encourage middle leader development across the school  which will assist the spreading of knowledge and expertise;

·       Work with education professionals to develop a shared understanding of progression and learning experience, with a key focus of the new curriculum for Wales;

·       Impact of the pandemic on staff audits and reviews and the welcome restarting of these within schools which seeks to identify both the skills and knowledge available and the gaps that need to be addressed;

·       Excellent links with Partneriaeth through job share colleague in school improvement team and in particular the good take up locally of both the middle & senior leader programme and also the aspiring headteacher and national headteacher qualification;

·       Higher take up in Swansea compared to other areas of established leaders into the national programmes which outlines a greater strength in depth in our area;

·       New secondment opportunity being developed locally that enables middle leaders and aspiring headteachers to access a secondment opportunity and “swap” schools for a period;

·       The details of how the secondment scheme is operated and led by a senior headteacher with assistance from the department  were detailed and outlined including the opportunities and benefits for learning, shared good practice and ideas and backfill opportunities for staff;

·       The benefits, both professional and personal of this scheme for teachers that are seconded and do swap schools was detailed;

·       Mentoring scheme and consultative pool which invites expressions of interest from experienced leaders to assist and give assistance and guidance to other schools;

·       Looking to develop a governor panel along the same lines of the mentoring scheme;

·       Role of the school improvement advisors and excellent links with UCA and SCASH networks in supporting schools in their self-evaluation process;

·       School improvement advisors also assist governing bodies with their recruitment of senior leaders;

·       Professional learning and qualifications available for middle and senior leaders is mostly through Partneriaeth but UWTSD and Open University are developing a broader offer for teachers;

·       Issues around the amount of teachers that wish to progress to middle and senior leadership roles, which is a national not local issue;

Members of the committee asked numerous questions and made comments regarding the information highlighted in the comprehensive presentation to which the Officers and Cabinet Member responded accordingly.

Agreed

The Chair spoke further to the circulated draft work plan.

The next meeting is also due to receive an update on Strengthening School Leaders and it was suggested the committee receive further information on peer reviews and the support and induction for new headteachers and school leaders and if timescales allow also receive information on the potential career pathways available for new teachers through Partneriaeth.

It was noted that the education scrutiny committee will be looking at the impact of the new legislation on the ALN provision, but it would be useful if this committee had sight of the results of their investigations.