Agenda and minutes

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

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

Resolved that the Minutes of the Education & Skills Policy Development Committee held on 13 June 2018 be agreed as a correct record.

Mike Jones and Nick Williams spoke further to the data and statistics circulated in the agenda pack and referred too, and outlined the following areas:

·       Difference between Free School Meals(FSM) and Non FSM pupils is almost 20% at school starting age;

·       46% of FSM pupils have additional learning needs compared to 22%;

·       54% of FSM boys have additional needs compared to 44% of girls;

·       Typical gap of 14-19% of foundation phase children;

·       15-18% gender gap;

·       Difference in achievement of autumn born girls and summer born boys is around a 20% gap;

·       Similar statistics to those above are repeated across Wales, so a national issue;

·       Fischer Family Trust value added data which reflects a similar gap;

·       Flying start effect can now be examined:

·       Availability for tracking and sharing of individual pupil data;

·       Qualifiers for FSM;

·       Potential impact of new Welsh Government additional criteria for FSM;

·       Issues around the under claiming of FSM;

Mike Jones indicated he would produce further statistics relating to Foundation Phase pupils for a future meeting.

The Chair indicated that the differences highlighted above, provided a clear focus and key issue for the committee to consider going forward.

The Committee will need to examine areas of good practice across Swansea and nationally, try and identify the gaps and aim to “roll out” these to all schools.

Information would also be needed on how schools spend their pupil development grant, and the views of Estyn would also be sought.

Nick Williams reported that Helen Morgan-Rees who was due to give a presentation on the item, was unable to attend the meeting for personal reasons. He had been unable to liaise with her  because of this and he had only just returned from a meeting in Llandrindod.

He stated he was on leave for the August meeting and was unsure whether Helen would be back in work for that meeting, so suggested a deferral of the item to a future meeting.

The Committee asked that their best wishes be passed to Helen and agreed that the item be deferred to a future meeting.

The Chair outlined the Workplan for the Committee for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2018/2019.

He indicated he would liaise with the Democratic Services Officer regarding the rescheduling on the item deferred above.

Resolved that the Workplan as outlined with the amendment suggested above be noted.