Minutes:
(Verbal report by Mrs J Whittle, Deputy Cabinet Member (Learning) and Mrs M Haeusler, Director for Learning and Mr M Baker, Strategic Director for Schools, Settings And Colleges)
(1) The Chairman asked Mrs Whittle to begin with her update. Mrs Whittle advised the Committee of the work she had been undertaking within her portfolio since the last meeting which included; the focus on Primary Attainment and progress on the National Challenge stating that she saw these areas interlinked and continued and strengthened collaboration between both Primary and Secondary schools was essential to tackle where there was low attainment in the schools. She spoke of the hard work being undertaken by staff, pupils and parents to develop a range of programmes and gave one example of a school offering support, The Hayesbrook School, Tonbridge, through a Family Learning Programme for pupils and parents, to enable parents to understand how pupils learn at the school.
(2) Mrs Whittle referred back to Primary Attainment mentioning the County Council meeting held on 1 April 2010, where Members received a presentation from Clare Brice-Smith from the Audit Commission when she stated that there was a need for Kent to focus on raising Primary Attainment. Mrs Whittle said that she was please that there was to be a Select Committee looking at Primary Attainment. She advised that she had visited University of Kent and was to visit Canterbury Christchurch College that had carried out work in schools to engage children in the love of learning; she felt that it would be a good idea to engage them in the work of the Select Committee.
(3) Mrs Whittle mentioned the huge amount of work being carried out by the Schools Improvement Team to help school that had not reached their floor target in their SATs and Key Stage 2 targets. The prediction was that the schools that had not reached their floor target would be halved next year. As part of the raising attainment in both primary and secondary schools would start as early as possible, most of the Children’s Centres where up and running and integrating a range of services under one roof, including Early Years, engaging parents and children in their learning. Mrs Whittle paid tribute to the work undertaken by Jennie Landsberg, Principal Advisor on Early Years and her Team on the quality of early years setting which had improved substantially over the past 2-3 years, which Mrs Whittle felt would have a knock on effect of improving Key Stage 1 and then Key Stage 2 results.
(4) Mrs Whittle then gave further examples of collaborative work in Primary and Secondary schools where specialist teachers from secondary schools and 6th form students were teaching pupils in Primary schools. She gave one example of a gifted mathematic student in year 12 who was teaching gifted mathematic pupils in year 6 of the Primary school, which she said was wide spread across the county.
(5) Mrs Whittle then spoke on the 14-19 year olds agenda advising that she had been meeting with Further Education Principals to forge a closer working relationship with the colleges following the transfer of powers from the Learning Skills Council to KCC, which would be discussed in detail in a later agenda item. Mrs Whittle saw this as a holistic approach ensuring that 14-16 year olds received the right pre vocational curriculum and the 16-19 year olds curriculum at levels 1, 2 and 3 had a smooth transition between the levels by ensuring the governance arrangements reflect the new FE role KCC had taken on and with the help of the FE sector ensure that the quality assurance arrangements in the prevocational curriculum were in place.
(6) Members were advised on the number of Grammar schools that were rolling out the International Baccalaureate and A-Levels and a hybrid of the IBA levels known as Accrobac. Mrs Whittle suggested that the Committee may wish to speak with Headteachers on their examination choices, to ensure for the 16-19 year olds there was sufficient choice for all students.
(7) Mrs Whittle mentioned that she had visited the Blue Water Learning Shop and witnessed the work to help people through the apprenticeship drive and recruitment of young people to do more apprenticeships and suggested that it would be beneficial to have a stronger focus on developing administration apprenticeships.
(8) Members were advised on the recruitment of teachers in particular secondary schools teachers there had been problems in recruiting teachers in the specialist areas. There had been a focus in the graduate teaching programme nurturing their own talent and many schools were recruiting former gifted students to teach whilst taking their Masters and PHDs. Mrs Whittle advised that she was looking at the issue of how newly qualified teachers could be provided with accommodation.
(9) Mrs Whittle concluded by introducing the new Director for Learning, Mrs Merril Haeusler who had been in post for 4 months.
(10) Mrs Haeusler then spoke on the scope of responsibilities for the Learning Group referring to the chart that had been tabled appended to these Minutes, that pulled together the network and organisation of the Learning Group. Mrs Haeusler advised that the Learning Group accountabilities and agenda were early years foundation stage through to post 16 years. The Learning Group was responsible for; the quality provision in the early years settings, the standards and pupil attainment in primary schools through to secondary schools, post 16 and higher education. Wrapped around that was the professional development particularly in leadership, which she felt was important in times of change when it was difficult to attract quality teachers particularly to more challenging areas. Mrs Haeusler stated that there was a need for succession planning to Headteachers posts. The Learning Group was also responsible for Governance in schools. Governors had a strategic role in schools and needed to be supported on moving from an operational role to that strategic role looking at school improvement and looking at how they can contribute to taking a school forward. Mrs Haeusler stressed the need to work closely with a range of agencies
(11) Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which included the following:
(12) In response to a question by Mr Jarvis, Mrs Haeusler advised that the Authorities responsibility for learners with additional needs continues until 24 years of age linked to the Specialist Children Services.
(13) In reply to a concern by Mr Burgess, Mrs Haeusler advised that there was no intension of decreasing the volume or quality training for Governors. She had met with school Governors to reassure them of the high quality training that they would continue to receive. The Governors at those meetings had requested more support to prepare for an OFSTED inspection and putting together their self evaluation that headteachers had to pull together and a better understanding of how they could lift themselves from being a Governing body that was operational to one that was strategic.
(14) In response to a comment by the Chairman, Mrs Haeusler referred to the tabled chart and said that it would be ideal to look at particular points of time in the year on areas under the Learning Group in terms of outcomes eg August/September - the SATs and GCSE results and progress on Early Years.
(15) Mr Vye commended the work being carried out visiting schools and colleges by the Deputy Cabinet Member and the Director. He then raised his concerns on the Advisors for Primary Attainment that would be lost with the Children, Families and Education Directorate restructure, Mrs Whittle assured Mr Vye that she felt it was essential that support was retained for those schools that failed to reach their floor targets.
(16) RESOLVED that the responses to Members questions and comments and the verbal updates be noted.