Agenda item

1.10

 

The Committee have requested to receive an update on the impact of COVID-19 on Education and Oxfordshire Schools.  Accordingly, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, Kevin Gordon and the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good will attend the meeting to give a verbal update on the current situation.

 

As part of the update, the Head of Learner Engagement, Deborah Bell will provide the Committee with an update on the Reintegration Timetable.

 

 

The Committee had requested to receive an update on the impact of COVID-19 on Education and Oxfordshire Schools.  Accordingly, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, Kevin Gordon and the Deputy Director for Education, Hayley Good attended the meeting to give a presentation on the current situation.  As part of the update, the Head of Learner Engagement, Deborah Bell would provide the Committee with an update on the Reintegration Timetable. A copy of the presentation is attached to the signed copy of the minutes.

 

During the presentation, the Director for Children, Kevin Gordon Services made the following points:

 

•             Schools remained open for vulnerable children and children of critical workers.  

•             Pressures on places for Critical Worker children remained; with 10 schools reporting that they had no places left for Critical Worker Children.  Officers had provided support and guidance to heads as well as working with public sector employers to ensure there are enough spaces for Critical Workers such as hospital workers.

•             From 8 March, Government hoped to begin 'wider' onsite school provision with all pupils returning to school.

•             There were significant challenges for schools at the moment including dual classes (virtual and onsite) and lots of staff and pupils self-isolating, with around 3-400 pupils and 160 staff self-isolating at present.

•             Asymptomatic testing was being carried out in schools:

–           staff in secondary schools were being tested on site twice a week.

–           Primary staff were ‘Home testing' + PCR if required. 

–           Students in secondary schools who were on site were able to be tested, following consent.

–           Early Years providers (mass testing as of 8th February at 3 OCC sites in the first instance).

•             Half-term: Free School Meals funding will be supported centrally by the Council – Covid Winter Grant. Government funded in 'term time’.

•             Increasing internal capacity to coordinate and drive initiatives around reducing digital exclusion across the Partnership.  Officers were doing a lot of work with the voluntary sector, though it was not just about getting laptops. Laptops had to be cleaned of data, configured, made secure, broadband or access and training and support to parents. 

•             There was a very high level of engagement from Headteachers, CEOs, Governors/ Trustees - 100% dedicated to ' get it right' for the pupils of Oxfordshire.  Weekly meetings were carried out with individual school groups which were very well attended and received very positive feedback.

 

Elective Home Education and Reintegration Timetable

 

Mr Gordon reported that there had been a rise in children Electively Home Educated (EHE), though it needed to be taken in the context of the pandemic taking into account parental fear and anxieties.  It was not really possible due to the pandemic to do a comparison with previous years, but numbers had gone up, though were below the National average and the average for the South East.  Oxfordshire figures were below comparator but still high with 881 from 661 pre-pandemic.   A lot of early intervention work had been carried out by officers to visit families with a mediated offer to try and broker there return to school.  Figures would have been well in excess of 1000 without mediation offer.

Reintegration timetables were being used differently than on previous years. The use of Reintegration Timetables were viewed as a positive strategy to encourage the attendance of reluctant children from anxious families, to offer a basis to build upon in lieu of families deciding to electively home educate.

 

·                RTTs reported as of January 2020 – 191

·                RTTs reported as of January 2021 - 288 

 

The Chairman welcomed the presentation.  He paid tribute to the Director and his Team for all the hard work that had been undertaken.  He commented that he had received wonderful reports from every quarter regarding what officers had been doing and that the fact that nearly all secondary heads turned up to the weekly meetings to hear the guidance and support of Education, (although there was no obligation in many cases due to them being academies) was a testament of the excellent work being carried out. The Chairman requested that the Committee’s thanks was passed on to all staff.

 

Councillor Fenton queried why there was a difference between testing in primary and secondary schools, and whether both systems were satisfactory?

 

In response, Kevin Gordon explained that there were National schemes and the clinical governance of the schemes was carried out nationally. The schemes were adapting and changing.  In terms of effectiveness, he believed a systematic testing was another layer of helpful intervention.  He thought that the systems were different because it was not realistic to expect primary school children to carry out the tests on themselves.

 

Councillor Pressel reiterated the Chairman’s comments thanking the staff.  She asked that all schools be thanked by the Committee as well.  She queried whether the laptops given out were on loan or would stay within the families and also in relation to free school meals, whether it could be made clear to families that if they were struggling in half term for food even if they were not technically free school meals families, help was available.  She also asked if the Director could comment on the catch-up fund and the National Tutoring Programme.

 

In response Kevin Gordon, the laptops were being given from central government to schools who were doing individual loan agreements with pupils and families.  There was no compulsion from central government to ask for those laptops back, so they would become part of the school equipment store.  Before Christmas they encouraged heads to engage with their families to ensure Free Schools Meals (FSM) were taken up.  There was a recognition that families just above the FSM threshold were struggling, so they had given individual hardships funds for headteachers, with a fair latitude of discretion to use on families who need it.  The Government tutoring fund and the discussions on what was going to happen to that post pandemic were wider than just funding, the funding was reasonable but when broken down to Oxfordshire level would only provide 5 or 6 tutoring sessions per pupil which would not close the gap.  As a system, both locally and Nationally there was a need to think about what was needed to be done post pandemic.  They were starting to have conversations with other partners on how to approach it.

 

Councillor Matelot added thanks to the technicians in schools who were working extremely hard on preparing the laptops.  In relation to the 10 schools who had not got places for Critical Worker Children, she queried whether those schools would be able to take all the pupils when government allowed pupils to return to school

 

In response, Kevin Gordon endorsed the comments regarding school technicians, acknowledging the vast amount of work that had been undertaken.  There would be a National risk assessment for the reopening of schools and changes in guidance. 

 

Donald McEwan reiterated the thanks to officers for their work with schools.  He asked if the public health message could be reiterated for headteachers to use in discouraging non-critical worker children in schools.  He expressed the importance of rebranding home learning to emphasise that it was not all on-line.  In response Kevin Gordon reported that they were undertaking a survey to get more insight into remote learning.

 

Carole Thomson, in relation to future proofing the digital access, queried whether the thinking was to be prepared for any future pandemics type of scenario or whether you see it as a way of augmenting the work of the hospital school for any sick child or family crisis.  In response Kevin Gordon reported that any lessons to take away should be and could be used in hospital schools etc, but there would need be a balance.  It was for the Education Sector to work out in a Strategic Way.

 

Councillor Howson, reiterated thanks to schools who had been running two systems with one set of funding.  He queried about the use and cost of supply teachers to cover staff who were self-isolating and how it was going to effect school budgets and whether the Director had any view on how schools were going to cope with it.  In response, Kevin Gordon undertook to take the question away and have a look at the issue of supply teachers to look to see whether there had been any particular rise or pressures.  In relation to school budgets, it was a national issue, he believed there would be some more central government funding, but there would be significant demands in other sectors as well.