Minutes:
(Mrs J Whittle, Deputy Cabinet Member, learning, Mrs P Harris Interim Head of Standards Improvement were present for this item)
(1) The Chairman explained that Ms M Haeusler, Director of Learning and Mr M Baker, Interim Director of Learning were not able to attend the meeting due to the launch of the formal consultation for the Children, Families and Education Directorate Restructuring Review that day. He invited Mrs Whittle to give a verbal update.
(2) Mrs Whittle outlined the work that she had undertaken since the Committee last met, this included; visiting a mixture of secondary, special, Grammar and primary Kent schools where she was please to see the enormous work being undertaken to improve both Key Stage 2 results, which had been a primary focus of attention and what hoped to be a significant increase in the 5 A* to C in mathematics and English examination results achieved which meant reaching the 2011 target a year early.
(3) Mrs Whittle advised that various campaigns had been launched which included; improving teachers pay in Kent with an aim to narrow the gap between their colleagues in outer London and the wider issue of teacher recruitment and retention, which linked with the pay and expanding the ‘Teacher First Programme’ which encourages bright young graduates to the teaching profession. The launch of restructuring CFE Directorate started today with a 3 month consultation, one aspect of this was looking at the role of the School Improvement Partner (SIP), Ms Haeusler would give and update on this at the next meeting. There was also a lot of work being undertaken to improve the links with Primary and Secondary schools she gave the example of a secondary school mathematics teacher in Swale teaching mathematics in primary schools to help improve those schools that were struggling to reach the floor targets with Key Stage 2.
(4) Mrs Whittle went on to advise that she and Mrs Allen met with the Children in Care Council to discuss how to improve educational outcomes for children in care. She advised that 6% of children in care reached 5A* to C at GCSE in English and mathematics which was too low. The focus would also include Gypsy/Traveller children whose attainment was also too low.
(5) Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which included:
(6) In response to a question by Mr Richardson, Mrs Whittle advised that the increase in teachers pay if achieved would be for every grade.
(7) Mr Demoyers-Davis suggested that Mrs Whittle should be mindful of the areas in the County where the ‘Fringe Area Allowance’ applied; Dartford Gravesend and Sevenoaks and Westerham, which aimed to cover the differences in housing costs, when looking at teachers pay. He was fully in support of Fringe Area Allowances being substantial and not spread too thinly. Mrs Whittle agreed that the Fringe Area Allowance should not be spread thinly and aligned to housing costs. She agreed to report back to an appropriate POSC meeting.
(8) Mr Demoyers-Davis suggested that Local Government needed to speak with the Government regarding the National Conditions of Service. He advised that the Academies were not bound by the National conditions of Service and were able to set their own levels of pay which meant that there were some that matched the National conditions of Service and others that had introduced a pay scale where junior and senior levels received more but those on the middle scales received less .
(9) In response to a comment by Mr Burgess, Mrs Whittle explained that the Schools Improvement Partners (SIPs) did know their schools but there were cases where SIPs covered up to 17 schools, her aim was to reduce the amount of schools they covered so that they were able to visit schools that were not reaching their floor targets more often. Mr Collor stated that the issue needed to be looked at over a period of time with all the changes for the whole of Kent.
(10)In response to a question by Ms Todd, Mrs Harris advised that the report before Members was a summary. There was extensive detailed data available in the public domain on all schools and Academies which could be made available. At Key Stage 4 in secondary schools, Kent was above national and our statistical neighbours, such as East and West Sussex, on 5A* to C in English and mathematics. There were 33 high schools in National Challenge Programmes that were making substantial improvements on that level. Since 2008 they had moved on the 5A* to C significantly and now all the attention was on English and mathematics. Our Grammar schools, wide ability schools and high achieving high schools and those in the more vulnerable communities were moving in the right direction.
(11)Mr Demoyers-Davis suggested that the input of money on the nationally challenged schools was making an impact on standards, if this was the case then the standard pupil cost could be the root of the issue, in the amount of money received for students by the school to get them through the 5A* to C including mathematics and English as some pupils cost more to get to that standard.
(12)RESOLVED that the responses to questions and comments made by Members and the verbal update be noted.