ITEM LC14(b)LEARNING & CULTURE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 20 MAY 2003Minutes of the meeting for county councillors, head teachers and chairs of governors in the Thame partnership of schools at Lord Williams’s School on Thursday, 20th March 2003, 4pm – 5pm
Present: County Councillors: Andrew Brown, Alan Bryden, Shereen Karmali, Brian Hodgson, Neil Fawcett, Diana Ludlow, Jim Moley, Tony Crabbe. Chairs of governing bodies/governors: Michael Thompson (St. Andrews), Diane Clough (Aston Rowant), Geoff Emerson (St. Joseph’s), Vivienne Hall (Tetsworth), Beatrice Dobie (Adult Community Learning). Head teachers: Alan Haigh (John Hampden), Jackie Million (Mill Lane), Gill Copsey (St. Andrew’s), Celia Wilson (Aston Rowant), Mary Stiles (Thame Adult Community Learning), Alison Barrow Williams (Chinnor Community Education Centre), Rachel Caseby (St. Joseph’s), Anne Walkinshaw (Tetsworth), Michael Spencer (Lord Williams’s), John Hulett (Barley Hill). School administrators: Dawn Armitage (Lord Williams’s). Advisers: Richard Howard, Dorothy Kavanagh. 1. Welcome: The group was welcomed by Michael Spencer, chair of the Thame partnership of schools. 2. Introduction: Michael Spencer described the work of the partnership, emphasising the schools’ close and effective working relationship, including the two Buckinghamshire primary schools in the partnership. 3. Networked Learning Communities: The Thame school partnership has made a successful bid for a Networked Learning Communities grant to enable them to work together to improve the quality of learning and raise standards in all partnership schools. This work is being carried out in collaboration with King’s College, London, and Cambridge and Reading Universities. John Hulett made a presentation, highlighting the key points:
Question: How will the success of the project be measured? Answer: The partnership will need to be able to demonstrate how staff are able to work effectively to achieve the objective of improving teaching and learning. 4. Open forum: Councillors made it clear that they were keen to hear the issues that head teachers and governors felt to be important.
Discussion points: i) The job evaluation scheme. Councillors emphasised that the scheme had been set up essentially for direct employees rather han school support staff and consequently does not suit the school context. ii) MIS and iii) the new payroll service. In addition to the points made by Dawn Armitage:
Councillors accepted all the criticisms that were made and confirmed that they were well aware of the serious nature of the problem outlined, as is the new head of ICT. They consider it a top priority to sort the matter out. In the longer term, they expect the new system to reduce the duplication of work. Councillors affirmed their support of local management of schools and that they do not wish to change this. Richard Howard proposed that a representative from the Strategic ICT team should visit the partnership and discuss issues of concern with the administrative staff. iv) Admissions Councillors made it clear that they understood the issues and know that they need to streamline the process (within present resources) and focus on the needs of individual pupils. Dawn Armitage emphasised that no criticism of schools’ advisers or officers was being implied. Schools felt well supported and had excellent relationships with them.
Do any classes in partnership schools have more than 30 pupils? Answers: Yes; often it is an arrangement that is the result of an organisational decision at the school’s choice. However, because of the strict restriction on the size of KS1 classes, primary schools are presented with whole school organisational/budget problems. Councillors, whilst appreciating this, supported the principle of a maximum of 30 in KS1 classes.
It was felt that the setting of the free school meals allowance at £1.40 was unrealistically low. In addition, the quality of school meals was considered to be poor.
A head teacher expressed concern and worry at facing a deficit budget in 2003-4 of up to £30,000. This problem is one being faced by many schools with experienced teachers at the top end of the pay spine; in the case of this school, having the lowest administration costs in the country. 5. On behalf of the partnership, Michael Spencer thanked the LEA staff and councillors for providing the opportunity for this open and frank discussion. Tony Crabbe, on behalf of the councillors, thanked the schools for their warm welcome throughout the day and for the very useful and informative discussion that had just taken place. Lord Williams’s SchoolBriefing Paper – 20th March 2003Job Evaluation Scheme
MIS Schools have expressed considerable concerns over the introduction of MIS. In summary these are:
Payroll Schools have noticed a significant deterioration in the services that they receive from the County. This is particularly true of the payroll service. The main areas of concern are as follows:
Admissions
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