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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services - 636923 

Items
No. Item

35.

Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

Minutes:

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

 

36.

Minutes. pdf icon PDF 112 KB

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

Minutes:

Resolved that the Minutes of the Education & Skills Policy Development Committee held on 13 February 2019 be agreed as a correct record.

 

37.

Evaluation of the Use of PDG Funding Across Swansea Schools. pdf icon PDF 110 KB

Minutes:

Helen Morgan-Rees referred to the circulated report which outlined the evidence and statistics gathered by the Challenge Advisors reports relating to Pupil Development Grant (PDG) spend from schools during Autumn 2018.

 

The data for the City & County of Swansea compared to All Wales results were outlined, as well the evidence tables relating to PDG spending areas and activities in both primary and secondary schools in Swansea.

 

Members discussed the statistics and asked questions of the officer. particularly around the following areas - need to learn from other LA’s and share examples of good practice locally relating to PDG spend, gap in achievement of CCS pupils compared to all Wales results, the reasons behind the difference in marking standards between key stages 3 & 4, and the need for a national approach to improving teaching assessment standards.

 

The Officer answered the questions of Members accordingly.

 

She also outlined the 4 main areas ideas identified for future development within schools relating to the PDG:

 

·         Named senior leader within the school (from within the senior leadership team) to champion pupils who are eligible for free school meals. They will have responsibility for the strategic implementation of the grant.

·         Regular review of intervention strategies to be evidenced and undertaken by the leadership team. Interventions that are selected to be implemented should be based on sound research and evidence. They should feature measurable entry and exit criteria that inform staff and pupils’ of the progress being made.

·         Optimise the progress of more able and talented pupils eligible for free school meals through more targeted and effective use of the PDG for this group of pupils. The PDG plan should identify these pupils and demonstrate/evaluate the actions/activities to support them. Where relevant, the provision and evaluation of the activities/resources used to support the learning of LAC- eFSM pupils should be included. Regular tracking of academic progress of this group of pupils to be developed further.

·         Standardised reporting for the use of the PDG to be submitted to the challenge adviser as part of SV1 monitoring and also submitted to the local authority by a specific date. Areas to be reported on include budget amounts and a breakdown of the impact from the previous year in the following areas, early years, foundation phase, key stage 2, 3, and 4, ALN, MAT and LAC. Reporting should also include planned expenditure with the chosen approach/rationale for selecting this implementation strategy stated with lead staff named and a review timescale with desirable outcomes.

·         Schools to email the local authority finance department by a specific date to confirm that the PDG plans, previous and current year, are live on website.

 

 

She also outlined the proposals for the change in delegated funding for LAC pupils from April, which will be on a cluster basis rather than a centrally led team. The emphasis will move from a focus on year 10 & 11 pupils to a more whole school approach. The potential staffing implications of the change were outlined, and she indicated that dialogue was continuing with schools on the proposed changes.

 

Members discussed the proposals above and asked various questions of the Officer who responded accordingly.

 

Agreed that the five areas outlined above be agreed and supported.

 

38.

Directory of Good Practice, School to School Peer Reviews & Templates.

Minutes:

Helen Morgan-Rees gave a detailed and informative powerpoint presentation on the following topics areas:

·         Current situation in relation to good practice, templates and peer reviews in relation to the pupil development grant;

·         Good Practice – Swansea Directory, Education Endowment Fund and recent event with EEF Director and all Heads in Swansea, Welsh Government, School to School, Practitioner Guidance, Work Identified through Peer Reviews, Regional Events;

·         Templates – Swansea PDG leads meeting with ERW,  Barriers to Learning, Health & Wellbeing, Whole School Approaches, Good Practice Examples;

·         Peer Reviews – Pilot Scheme at Bryntawe, General Examples and Existing Peer Reviews, Minimum Expectations.

 

Members discussed the content of the presentation and agreed that the five areas agreed at Minute 37 above be added to the Directory of Good Practice.

 

Members further discussed the areas and topics raised today and previously relating to the PDG and areas for development and improvement as outlined and contained in Minute 37 and detailed above and agreed that these form a draft report to Cabinet that the Committee could consider at its next meeting as a basis of a recommendation to the Cabinet Member to adopt and refer on to all schools.

39.

14-19 Skills Cabinet Report.

Minutes:

Helen Morgan-Rees gave a verbal update relating to the issues contained in the Committee’s previous report to Cabinet on City Deal Skills Development and outlined the progress made by the Partneriaeth Sgiliau Abertawe (PSA) / Swansea Skills Partnership.

 

The group which is made up of representatives from CCS, Universities, Local Colleges, Schools & Careers Wales has met several times and at its February meeting agreed its two main key objectives of Digital Capability and Better Support & Advice for Vocational Training & Qualifications.

 

She also indicated that two sub groups of the PSA had been established to oversee and develop the two topic areas.

 

Members welcomed the adoption of the two topics which mirrored issues and concerns they had raised previously but queried why there was no industry/business representatives on the PSA or sub groups and requested that Officers look to include appropriate representatives where possible going forward and ensure local labour market needs were identified.

 

This request would be highlighted in the relevant update report to Cabinet outlining the progress on the skills initiative.

40.

Workplan 2017/2018. pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Minutes:

The Chair requested that the committee at its next meeting be provided with a update on the current situation relating to the progress on the implementation of the new curriculum.

 

This can form the background to the basis of a topic for review in the new municipal year.  The views of current Pioneer Schools will also be sought.

 

Resolved that a verbal update on the new curriculum be added to the agenda for the next meeting.