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  • Agenda and minutes
  • Agenda and minutes

    Venue: Darent Room, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone. View directions

    Contact: Gateano Romagnuolo  03000 416624

    Items
    No. Item

    23.

    Matt Dunkley, Corporate Director, CYPE, Kent County Council pdf icon PDF 46 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Matt Dunkley (Corporate Director, Children, Young People and Education) was in attendance.

    The Chair welcomed the guests to the Committee and a short introduction was given by Members.

    Q – Please introduce yourself and provide an overview of the roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

    Matt Dunkley had been the Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Education at Kent County Council since November 2017. Prior to that, he had a 34-year career in services for children – including 8 years as Director of Children’s Services for East Sussex County Council and, more recently, 9 months as DCS turning around Children’s Services in Norfolk County Council. Matt Studied and worked in the USA. He also worked for 4 years for the State Government of Victoria, Australia. Matt was President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) in 2011-12, and was made a CBE for services to Children and Families in 2014.

     

    Q – Please discuss the refreshed Kent’s Strategy for Vulnerable Learners.

     

    Matt said that the Children, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee were considering the Kent Strategy for Vulnerable Learners in March 2018. The Committee were looking at whether Kent needed to re-calibrate priorities and highlight ways in which best practice could be measured. He said it was important to develop greater depth to the service offer and approach to identify groups who were very vulnerable. He said that Children’s Services were currently looking at what more could be done to tailor the approach to vulnerable groups to ensure that a difference was made. He said that there were six overall priorities, this was the answer to what works:

     

    1.    Aspirational Cultures: The relentless ambition to succeed – Matt said that schools needed to develop several bespoke measures tailored to each school’s circumstance.

     

    2.    Individual Learning Pathways and Support – Matt said to ensure that all learners succeed, learning programmes and activities needed to be personalised and supported by an individualised approach to addressing barriers to learning and emotional support.

     

    3.    Parental Engagement and Involvement – Through working with families, parents, carers and wider families, they would be involved in decision making and will be encouraged to actively be involved in children, young people and education.

     

    4.    Leadership, Teaching and Learning – Matt said it was important for schools to set high aspirations, devolve responsibility for raising achievement to all staff, and ensure that quality teaching was seen as a priority and teachers see every learner as an individual. It would important for schools to close achievement gaps and build upon high quality teaching for all learners.

     

    5.    Promoting Collaborations –Matt said that it was important to develop more effective district collaborations, optimise the use of experiences and resources between schools and KCC services and therefore narrow achievement gaps for vulnerable learners.

     

    6.    Evidence based use of resources – Matt said that the tools and resources that had been developed would be used to monitor pupil progress more comprehensively and monitor the progress of specific  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

    24.

    Deborah Stanley, Headteacher, Maidstone Grammar School for Girls pdf icon PDF 47 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    1.    Mrs Game welcomed the Headteacher of Maidstone Grammar School for Girls; Deborah Stanley and the Select Committee Members to the Select Committee meeting to discuss Pupil Premium funding. She invited all those present to introduce themselves.

     

    2.    Deborah Stanley explained that she had been Headteacher at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls for almost 3 years and has the responsibility of day to day running of the school, of which 1,200 students are predominately girls. Deborah Stanley commented about her representation to Maidstone Grammar School for Girls, Maidstone Grammar School for Boys and Oakwood Park Grammar and went on to explain her role as part of Mid Kent teachers appeal for the 11+, where primary teachers put forward to a Panel pupils work and explained that Pupil Premium students were the area focus. 

     

    3.    Deborah Stanley went on to explain that as of December 2017, 75 of those pupils are Pupil Premium in years 7-11 and another 18 in sixth form that are going off to University. Deborah Stanley commented that the number of Pupil Premium students was at an average and stated that in East Kent there were more Pupil Premium students as opposed to West Kent that had less.

     

    4.    Q- It was asked for Mrs Stanley to clarify the schools bursary in sixth form.

     

    5.    Deborah Stanley commented that Pupil Premium students up to year 11 were allocated in a different way to sixth form students. EMA enable students to stay in education but the challenges of Pupil Premium were managed strategically under the same bracket as the bursary. 

     

    6.    A member of the Panel asked about the Head Teachers appeal panel and what happened if a child missed a mark and what the range would be.

     

    7.    Deborah Stanley responded that it would be different to where you were located in Kent as there are more pressures on school places and a higher threshold in particular areas.

     

    8.    A member of the Panel continued the question previously by asking what the case would be if a child missed out on 5 or 10 marks.

     

    9.    Deborah Stanley explained that they would be looking at the individuals pass mark or what occurred on the day of the test; such as a family bereavement that may have affected their result. The consideration of Pupil Premium students would be taken in account but not automatically put through.

     

    10.Deborah Stanley explained that their greatest challenge was the quality of evidence provided by the head Teacher at the primary school. 

     

    11.The Chair commented on how the school spend and track Pupil Premium funding.

     

    12.Deborah Stanley explained that most of their Pupil Premium students were within Ever 6 and free school meals and were tracked as individuals. Each student would be given a number and this is logged onto a system to assess their money and what students spent and evaluate why. The DFE will contact parents if they are entitled to Pupil Premium upon checking data systems but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

    25.

    Appendix pdf icon PDF 482 KB