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Agenda and minutes

Venue: County Hall

Contact: Deborah Miller, Tel: 07920 084239  Email: deborah.miller@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

86/18

Introduction and Welcome

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and in particular the Deputy Regional Schools Commissioner, Dame Kate Dethridge and members of her team who were attending for a question and answer session at Agenda Item 6.

87/18

Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Suzanna Bartington and Richard Brown.

 

The Committee was advised that Richard Brown had resigned his position as a co-opted member as he was no longer eligible having resigned as a governor.

 

 

88/18

Minutes pdf icon PDF 298 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2017 (ESC4) and to receive information arising from them.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 December 2017 were approved and signed as an accurate record.

 

Matters Arising

 

In response to a question raised under Minute 78/17, the Chairman reported that a letter had been sent to all Oxfordshire M.P s regarding the underfunding of the high needs block and that there would be a report back to the Meeting in June.

 

Councillor Hibbert-Biles, Cabinet Member for Public Health & Education reported that she had attended a meeting with the Department for Education who had acknowledged that Oxfordshire were underfunded and that dialogue had now been opended.

89/18

Regional Schools Commissioner

13:10

 

The Deputy Regional Schools Commissioner, Dame Kate Dethridge will attend the Committee for a question and answer session regarding the work of the Regional School Commissioner and school performance across Oxfordshire.

Minutes:

The Deputy Director for the Regional Schools Commissioner, Dame Kate Dethridge attended the Meeting for a question and answer session regarding the work of the Regional School Commissioner and school performance across Oxfordshire.

 

By way of introduction the Deputy Director gave a brief overview of the work carried out by her office.  The Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) covered North West London and South Central which covered 27 local authority areas from North London to Northampton. The RSC supported schools in difficulty in finding supporting sponsors; supported Multi Academy Trust development, school improvement and school grants - including managing £140mn school improvement grants for schools, MATs and an emergency fund.

 

The RSC established, developed and maintained relationships and believed in working in collaboration to achieve a best solution for schools and children. Stakeholder engagement was another key role of the RSC and had a MAT reference group, together with events that were run for maintained and academy schools on subject specific topics such as improvement of disadvantaged learners and the Pupil Premium.

 

During questions and discussion, the following points were made:

 

1.        Performance at KS2 in Oxfordshire was reaching the expected standard, reading was slightly above and writing was slightly below. Results were in line with national levels but progress was an area of focus. Maths was slightly below average. At KS4 the national average was 42.9% versus Oxfordshire at 48.1% so the county was performing better than the national average. For Ofsted, academy schools had 74% good or outstanding ratings, this was 95% for maintained schools.

 

2.    When asked what the Commissioner’s response was to tackling underperforming academies, the Deputy Director explained that when a school was underperforming it would be identified in September or October by a data triage. The RSC would then talk to MATs and would hold them to account of any underperformance. This would include meeting with the MAT CEO and Head Teacher and looking at their school improvement offer and progress. The RSC meet each term with the LEA including The Director, Roy Leach and Councillor Hibbert-Biles. When a school had been placed into special measures a robust solution was needed. The RSC talk to local sponsors and the local authority to find a solution that was in the best interests of the school and pupils. If the school was in a Trust we see it as the responsibility of the Trust to communicate what was happening to parents and pupils, not the role of the RSC. It was noted that this communication was not monitored so it was not known whether this happened in all cases.

 

3.    The Head Teachers Board (HTB) was not a decision-making body, any decisions were made by the RSC. RSC would communicate with the HTB at a point where the project lead had found a strong sponsor or brokerage solution and would take this to the Board to stress test the solution. The minutes were published on the RSC website, the RSC had been requested to have more detailed/fulsome  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89/18

90/18

Anti-Bullying Charter for Voluntary Adoption by Schools pdf icon PDF 212 KB

13.55

 

In response to a motion from Council about reviewing the prevalence of prejudice-related bullying in schools and online, the Committee previously received a short report outlining policy and guidance on prejudice-related bullying and cyber bullying and how the Council is working to tackle this issue. Please see this report for further detail about the work being done as part of Oxfordshire's Anti-Bullying Strategy

 

At the meeting on 13th December the Committee recommended that an Anti-Bullying Charter be developed for voluntary adoption by schools. This report outlines the progress that has been made towards achieving this.

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

In response to a motion from Council about reviewing the prevalence of prejudice-related bullying in schools and online, the Committee had previously received a short report outlining policy and guidance on prejudice-related bullying and cyber bullying and how the Council was working to tackle the issue.

At its meeting on 13 December the Committee recommended that an Anti-Bullying Charter be developed for voluntary adoption by schools. The report now before the Committee outlined the progress that had been made towards achieving this.

 

Ms Brown, Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator, in introducing the report explained that following a meeting with the Cabinet Member for Education and the Deputy Director to discuss the content of the Charter, it was felt that Anti -Bullying Alliance 10 key principals on tackling bullying would be an excellent basis for Oxfordshire’s Anti Bullying Charter. 

 

Following gaining permission from the Alliance (who were one of the main organisations signposted in the Department for Education guidance “Preventing and Tackling Bullying” and were currently funded by the DfE to deliver the “All Together” programme which Oxfordshire had been successful in securing),  the  new charter was launched on the 28th February and 38 schools had already adopted the charter.

 

Any school would be able to contact the Anti-Bullying Co-ordinator to sign up for and adopt the Anti-Bullying Charter. Schools would then be provided with a copy of the Anti-Bullying Charter to display in their reception areas to show their commitment to those key principles. This would provide a strong message to everyone in the school community.  It would also provide an opportunity to signpost Oxfordshire guidance, templates and protocols to support schools to develop good practice. Some short guidance for schools to accompany the charter was currently being written.

 

Schools who wished to achieve further recognition for their practice in relation to Anti-Bullying alongside the Charter could also receive the Oxfordshire Anti-Bullying Charter Mark

 

The Committee welcomed the progress made thus far and made the following points:

 

·         The Committee requested that the information be disseminated through the headteachers and chairs meeting;

·         There was a request that the charter and guidance be circulated to all members of the Committee;

·         The committee requested that the guidance on cyber bullying should be sent out with the charter in order that schools could deal with it appropriately

·         The Committee requested that a short summery of the guidance around cyber bullying be produced and sent to all schools and all governors.

91/18

School Absence and Attendance pdf icon PDF 128 KB

14:15

 

The Committee has previously agreed to undertake a review of educational attendance in Oxfordshire and this report outlines the scope of the review, following the presentation by Officers at the last meeting in December. The report also asks that the Committee agrees to co-opt another non-Cabinet member to the sub-group as there is a vacancy on the sub-group that cannot be filled from existing Committee Members.

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

 

(a)      agree the scope of the deep dive;

(b)      Co-opt an additional Councillor to the sub-group. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee had previously agreed to undertake a review of educational attendance in Oxfordshire.  The Committee had before it a report which outlined a suggested scope for the review, following a presentation given by officers at the last meeting in December.  The report also sought approval from the Committee to co-opt another non-Cabinet member to the deep dive investigation.

 

Following discussion, the Committee AGREED the scoping document subject to the end date of the Review being moved to September 2018 and the following members be appointed onto the Group:

 

Councillor Jeanette Matelot

Councillor Sobia Alfridi

Councillor Michael Waine

Mr Ian Jones.

92/18

Forward Plan and Committee Business pdf icon PDF 76 KB

14:25

 

An opportunity to discuss and prioritise future topics for the Committee, potential approaches to its work and to discuss the schedule for future meetings.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a revised forward plan which had been circulated at the meeting (a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes) and AGREED the business set out on the forward plan. Subject to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman managing the timing and order of business for the efficient and effective running of the Committee.