The Chairperson welcomed
Councillor Sarah Merry (Cabinet Member for Education), Nick
Batchelar (Director – Education and Lifelong Learning, Angela
Kent (Head of Achievement and Inclusion) to the
meeting.
The Chairperson also welcomed
Nic Naish (Headteacher - Greenway Primary School) and Lorraine
Feltstead (Headteacher – Meadowbank School) to the
meeting.
The Chairperson invited the
Cabinet Member to make a statement in which she said wished to
thank staff for all their efforts and hard work which led to the
dramatic improvement in the rankings.
Members were provided with an
overview of Performance as outlined in
the Appendix A.
Both Headteachers advised
Members that in their view there have been good improvements over
the last 3/4 years, there has been a big turnaround in schools in
the last 5 years and the current picture is positive, particularly
in primary schools.
The Chairperson invited
questions and comments from Members:
- Members asked what is
being doing to address poor teaching and leadership and were
advised that quite clearly high quality teaching and good
leadership is important. If that is not
happening it has to be identified and discussed. It is important that School Governors are involved
and that there are good support structures in place.
- Members queried the
further improvement needed in schools where teachers’
expectations of pupil achievement remains low and were advised that
there have to be cultural changes, but it will take
time. In a lot of schools the problem
is leadership as opposed to teaching.
- Members queried what
direct action can be taken if schools stubbornly refuse to improve
and whether the change in leadership is having as positive an
impact as anticipated. Officers advised
that in relation to one of the schools the leadership has remained
consistent for the last two years and that during that time there
have been huge changes and improvements made. There is still a great deal of work to be done,
however, with specific reference to behaviour the number of
exclusions has severely decreased. The
other school is due to close at the conclusion of the summer term
and pupils will then transition to the new school.
- Members were advised
that special schools were not referred to in the report as there is
not a comparable pupil performance reference point. Lorraine
Felstead advised that Headteachers of special schools are trying to
put in place a data collection exercise to try and establish some
comparators that can be used.
- Members expressed
concern that the various schools referred to in the report had not
been identified as they believed that the information was in the
public domain and therefore they should be; whether those schools
are performing well or not.
- Members were advised
that the Numeracy and Literacy tests were now only to be used
diagnostically.
- Members referenced
the widening attainment gap and the information provided; name the
capacity of Cardiff schools to meet less complex needs without a
statement is improving, and whilst the proportion of pupils with
statements is not increasing each cohort of pupils tends to have
more complex needs than the previous cohort. Members were advised that the gap does widen in
the secondary phase, children with complex needs are being taught
in mainstream education and it is important that a more specialist
resource base is being developed.
- Members queried
whether School Action and School Action Plus interventions are
working and whether staffing levels are adequate and where advised
there is an ongoing process of identifying and meeting the needs of
young people entering school and the Additional Learning bill
proposes far reaching changes in care and provision.
- Members made
reference to the scatter graphs provided and noted the difference
in performance between eFSM pupils and nFSM pupils in both primary
and secondary age groups; with the better results being in the
primary age group. Members were advised
that the scatter graphs can exaggerate the differences between
primary and secondary. Mr
Naish advised that schools need to
provide experiences to help young people achieve their goals; it is
not only about the quality of the teaching but about the
experiences the school can offer.
- Members asked whether
the New Curriculum for Wales will have any impact on standards in
Cardiff Schools. Officers advised that
the New Curriculum will provide both opportunities and challenges
and that schools must be prepared for the changes. It is an ambitious programme and it is accepted
that there has to be a co-ordinated approach when working on the
New Curriculum.
- Members referred to
the reduction in the proportion of A level teaching in Cardiff
judged to be excellent or outstanding from 2015 to 2016 and were
advised that greater consistency across schools is an ongoing
challenge and to improve outcomes the quality of the teaching and
learning has to be improved. Alps data
is currently used to monitor the quality of delivery. A number of
schools are also working in partnership to provide students with
access to certain subjects.
AGREED – That the Chairperson on behalf
of the Committee writes to relevant Cabinet Members, Directors and
officers thanking them for attending the meeting on 10 January and
to convey the observations of the Committee when discussing the way
forward.