Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Meeting and in particular new Committee Member Councillor Ted Fenton.  He welcomed Mr Donald Mcewan, Council of Oxfordshire Teachers’ Organisations who had attended with Mr Ian Jones to observe the meeting.

An apology for absence was received from Mrs Carole Thomson.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 19 September 2018 (ESC4) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 September 2018 were approved and signed as an accurate record subject to the following change to Minute 112/18 as shown in bold italics/stikethrough below:

The Chairman indicated that the Committee had identified the lack of data sharing from schools to be an ongoing issue and with the agreement of the Deputy Director for Children’s Services, undertook to write to schools to encourage them to submit their examination data to the authority and to encourage them to sign up to the data sharing protocol that was being developed by the Deputy Director for Education.   and if schools still did not share their data, to escalate it where necessary to the Trustees. The Deputy Director also undertook to all he could to encourage schools.

Matters Arising

Minute 110/18 – The Chairman reported that the Committee would be recieiving an update report at the next meeting.

Minute 118/18 – In relation to the resolution, the Chairman reported that a letter had now been prepared jointly from the Education Scrutiny Committee, The Schools Forum Chair and The Director of Children’s Services and would be sent next week.

Minute 113/19 – the Committee raised concern over pupils who could be disadvantaged as a result of the parallel admission arrangements for the Swan School and requested that officers try and find a way of flagging pupils who may potentially suffer due to the situation and to do everything they could to mitigate the situation which was not of the Authorities making.

1:10 pm

The Committee has previously agreed to undertake a review of educational attainment and this report outlines the scope of the review and also asks the Committee to agree to nominations to form the sub-group who will carry out the deep dive.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)       agree the scope of the deep dive;

(b)       co-opt three additional members to the sub-group.

The Committee had previously agreed to undertake a review of educational attainment.  The Committee now had before it a report which, following an officer presentation to the Committee in March, outlined the scope of the review and sought nominations to form the sub-group who would carry out the deep dive.

The Committee had at its previous meeting noted that although the overall picture appeared to be positive, there were areas where the county was performing below the national average:

(a)         Writing outcomes at KS1 and KS2 were below the national average, though improvements were being made.

(b)         Attainment for disadvantaged pupils and SEN learners remained below those of non-disadvantaged pupils, although there were areas of improvement.

(c)          The curriculum offer under Attainment 8 consisted of 5 precise subjects and 3 open element subjects. The KS4 offer could vary across schools and the Committee felt that it would be beneficial to investigate how this impacted on the Attainment and Progress 8 scores across the county.

The Committee agreed that the overall aim of the deep dive would therefore be to gain a greater understanding of the drivers behind trends associated with improved educational attainment, particularly for vulnerable learners, including:

(a)      gaining a greater understanding of the Pupil Premium monies received by schools, and how the income was streamed to other similar schools outside of Oxfordshire;

(b)      identifying how the money was used in schools to facilitate the educational attainment of pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium and in particular children in care;

(c)       to investigate the work being undertaken by the Council, schools and colleges in the county to promote school inclusion and how this linked to educational attainment;

(d)      to investigate the work undertaken to ease the transition between primary and secondary school, and for those that moved into 14-18 schools, particularly vulnerable learners;

(e)      to consider the Key Stage 4 offer at schools across Oxfordshire and the opportunities and challenges that existed in relation to Progress 8 and Attainment 8 figures for all learners;

(f)        to understand the educational attainment levels of gypsy and traveller communities in Oxfordshire compared to the national average.

The Deputy Director, David Clarke whilst welcoming the investigation, cautioned that due to the size of this piece of work, greater clarity would be needed around whether around the scope of the review and whether this was focused around attainment 8 or progress 8.  In response Councillor Howson indicated that it was the intention was to be secondary school focused, concentrating on the following vulnerable groups:

Pupil Premium;

SEND in Mainstream Schools;

ROMA and travelling Children;

Looked After Children – out of County – Implications of how long it was taking to get them into school;

Links with Progress 8;

Children who arrive Mid-Year – transfer/mobility Issues.

Following debate, the Committee RESOLVED to:

(a)       agree the scope of the deep dive;

(b)       co-opt Councillor Ted Fenton and Councillor Michael Waine to the sub-group;

(c)       ask Councillor Jeanette Matelot and Mrs Carole Thomson whether they are able  ...  view the full minutes text for item 118/18

1:30 pm

This report is intended to provide information to assist the Committee in developing questions to ask Ofsted representatives at the next Committee meeting. The report contains:

-   summary of Ofsted outcomes as of 1st October 2018

-   examples of key themes Ofsted have reviewed in recent inspection reports

-   examples of the support the local authority are giving to Headteachers and Governing bodies.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the information and agree questions to ask Ofsted representatives.

The Committee had before them a report which provided information to assist the Committee in developing questions to ask Ofsted representatives at the next Committee meeting, including a summary of Ofsted outcomes as of 1st October 2018; examples of key themes Ofsted had reviewed in recent inspection reports; together with examples of the support that the local authority were giving to Headteachers and Governing bodies.

Following debate, the Committee AGREED that the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Opposition Spokesperson use the report and consultation on the new framework due to be published in January as a tool kit for preparing strategic questions for Chris Russel, Ofsted Regional Director and to note that questions should be focused around the following areas:

·                Exclusions – off rolling – what Ofsted were doing to tackle the situation;

·                Safeguarding;

·                The Wider Curriculum;

·                Headship & Governance;

·                Parts of requirements clashing;

·                Data requirements.

2:00 pm

The report considers the 2018 Pupil Place Plan, which includes present and predicted future pupil numbers on roll, together with information about birth rates, school capacity, and new housing. The Plan sets out proposed changes in the number of school places available over the next year and it suggests where other changes may be necessary in the future. The Plan also sets out our policies on school organisation and the statutory framework for making changes such as opening, closing or enlarging schools. The Pupil Place Plan does not itself propose service changes, but collates proposals which have been made, or are expected.

The Committee is asked to consider the report.

The Committee had before them a report which presented the 2018 Pupil Place Plan, including present and predicted future pupil numbers on roll; information about birth rates; school capacity; and new housing. The Plan set out proposed changes in the number of school places available over the next year and suggested where other changes may be necessary in the future. The Plan also set out policies on school organisation and the statutory framework for making changes such as opening, closing or enlarging schools.

In introducing the report, Mrs Chillman explained that the Plan did not itself propose service changes, but collated proposals which had been made, or were expected.  The fall in birth rate meant that primary schools were seeing their numbers come down.  The focus now was on growing capacity from Year 7 upwards where the demand for school places continued to rise as he higher birth rate last decade began to start effecting secondary schools.

In relation to areas of pressure for 2019, she reported that plans were in place to deal with the findings of the ‘applications data’ which showed pressure in Bicester and Oxford City, including 3 new schools, the Swan School due to open in September 2019, Whitelands Academy planned to open in SW Bicester in 2020 and an all-through free school at grove Airfield planned to open in 2022.

11 Existing secondary schools would be expanded or increase their admission numbers to meet population growth.

The Swan School was due to open in temporary accommodation in 2019, subject to the Secretary of State signing a funding agreement with the River Learning Trust.  This funding agreement would not be signed in time to offer places on National Offer Day, and therefore all pupils offered a place at the Swan School would also need to be offered a place at an existing school, to protect them against any potential delay in the Swan School opening. This would require existing schools to agree “bulge” classes to enable all applicants to be offered a place, but those bulge classes might not then be required if the Swan School does open as planned. This would clearly be a stressful time for all involved. 

The Committee expressed concern over the low sixth form figures particularly in relation to Carterton.  Mrs Chillman explained that this was often due to tightly defined catchment areas and that officers had now asked the Department for Education to break down planning areas which would lead to much more broken up areas.

The Committee confirmed that they reasonably confident that everything that could be done was being done and that all was on track.  The Committee thanked Mrs Chillman for the report.

2:30 pm

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

Members considered the forward programme of items and agreed items for February and March meetings as shown below (changes shown in bold italics and strikethrough).