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 26 October 2022 be approved and signed as a correct record.

 

For Information

David Thomas gave a verbal presentation relating to the current strengths in school leadership in particular covering peer reviews, support and induction for new headteachers and support for new teachers through Partneriaeth.

 

In respect of peer reviews, guidance had been initially developed following the previous Estyn inspection framework in Swansea.

 

The context to the current peer reviews is being developed in conjunction with Welsh Governments ‘Schools as Learning Organisations’ scheme.

 

He then shared a short video from the Welsh Governments Hwb website which outlined an overview of the work that is being undertaking with schools to support them in the engagement of the schools as learning organisations.

The theme of the video promotes the idea that pupils, staff, parents, local communities & businesses are all ‘In It Together’.

 

Welsh Government has developed an SLO survey that outlines 7 areas in which every practitioner in a school setting would undertake a survey and it asks a number of questions which would ascertain on a scale how well engaged for example, school leaders ensure that practitioners are with other settings outside of the school.

 

The survey not only covers peer reviews, it also covers a broad range of engagement activities including self-evaluation, the sharing of a school vision and reaches across and links well to the professional standards for teaching and leadership.

 

He outlined that there's a really clear link between both the expectations of early teachers, of developing teachers and senior leaders and head teachers with self-evaluation tools such as the schools learning organisations scheme, and the evaluation and analysis of the survey can produce a ‘web’ diagram which will outline the results of the seven areas and show both the strengths and weaknesses identified within the school.

 

An example of such a ‘web’ survey result was outlined and displayed to committee.

 

School leaders following the results of the survey would then turn to something called the national resource for evaluation improvement, which helps them to ask questions of themselves relating to the areas identified within the survey.

 

The school improvement team on their visits would have the results of the survey and link in with the school to assist and develop ideas to address any issues identified.

 

He then outlined the assistance around the induction support for new senior positions given to governing bodies which includes departmental guidance from a member of the school improvement team at every stage for deputy heads and headteachers, in most cases assistant heads and in some cases senior leaders.

 

A mentor is then assigned to the individual appointed to a head teacher role, and we have a bank of experienced head teachers who have offered their services as mentors. We use the term informal mentor because it sits outside of the national program. There is a number of these practitioners who we can call upon to interact with the new head teacher on a regular basis, as means of providing well-being support, but also some practical guidance and assistance on how to run the school.

 

The second step in the process is that they will be assigned a mentor through the new and acting head teacher program in Swansea, which is slightly separate, so they will become part of a wider network in Swansea and there would be some more formal sessions that are facilitated by experience head teachers in Swansea and they would also be part of a WhatsApp group and various other teams/groups in order to make sure that they've they can reach out for support when its required.

 

They are also they're also enrolled in the new and acting head teacher program from a national viewpoint facilitated by Partneriath, and looked after by Rob Phillips, who is seconded from one of our Swansea secondary schools and engaged in that national program as a statutory function. Further to that, when we take a step back and look at the new and acting head teacher program that we operate in Swansea, we follow the newly written handbook, which sign posts professional learning requirements for specifically Swansea head teachers such as finance, premises management, HR, etc.

 

In addition to the above there is a suite of seven mandatory courses that those headteachers are required to undertake within their first two years.

 

He detailed that in terms of the wider work of a head teacher, the informal mentor would provide support for things like effective processes for self evaluation, the engagement in their SLO work outlined previously and the work to support the strategic direction and delivery of the school, but following the school improvement visit which occurs at least three times a year, the team would then engage with the mentor informally to just chat about how that individual is progressing. The team may call the mentor to come into meetings during our visit. The team also engage with the governing body because they are part of those visits as well.

 

He outlined that where requirements for further support are identified, the school improvement adviser would flag this with the individual and then signpost to effective practice using the database that the team has collated. He outlined an example of where this occurred and support of an experienced teacher was provided in a faith school setting.

 

He outlined the basis and background on which the mentors are identified or self-identify, this would be done with the support of the relevant governing body.

He then detailed the work that goes on to support new teachers into the profession in Swansea and there are a number of networks delivered via Teams by Partneriath,

 

He referred to the suite of support that is offered and outlined that each local authority are given delegated the funds to support newly qualified teachers in their local authorities via the region, in Swansea, one of the team oversees the work of the internal mentors and the external mentors and verifiers across the local authority. As one of the larger authorities, Swansea has a large pool of newly qualified teachers.

 

He detailed the opportunity through funding during the pandemic to place newly qualified teachers in Swansea schools to carry out their early practice. This was well utilised in Swansea schools and allowed senior leaders to undertake further school improvement activities.

 

Swansea schools make good use of Partneriath’s professional learning offer and he displayed online for the committee a snapshot of the online provision that is available online for newly qualified teachers across Swansea schools and the various networks, links and support groups that are on offer both externally and internally.

 

Members of the committee asked numerous questions and made comments regarding the information highlighted in the presentation to which the Officers and Cabinet Member responded accordingly. Some of the data and info requested during the meeting would be explored and could be supplied in due course if relevant to the committees work.

 

Helen Morgan-Rees and Rhodri Jones referred to the ongoing development of the handbook for new and acting headteachers in Swansea which is in draft form at the moment. They thanked the committee for their input, questions and comments over the past few meetings which would be fed into the document and shared initially for comment with a group of both experienced and newly qualified headteachers. The document could then be brought back to this committee for approval in due course prior to being submitted to Cabinet.

 

The finalised version would be available online for staff.

 

For Information

 

The Chair spoke further to the circulated draft work plan and outlined that the next two meetings would focus on Attendance & Inclusion.