POLICY COMMISSION MEETING

Meeting	Children and School Results Commission
Ref	CPC 2/11/05
Date	Wednesday, 2 November 2005 6.00pm – 8.20pm
Place	Committee Room 1, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight
Purpose of meeting	Formal public meeting
Attendance	Commission members – Cllrs Melanie Swan (Commissioner), Wendy Arnold, George Cameron, Deborah Gardiner, Gill Kennett, Lady Pigot Cabinet member – Cllr Patrick Joyce Cabinet Secretaries – Cllrs David Pugh, Alan Wells Officers – Mr David Pettitt, Mr Keith Simmonds, Mr P Thistlewood, Miss April West Other members present – Cllrs Mike Cunningham, Jonathan Fitzgerald-Bond, Geoff Lumley. Roger Mazillius, Ian Stephens, Andy Sutton, David Williams
Agenda Items
1. Notes of previous meeting	The notes of evidence of the meeting held on 5 October 2005 were agreed.
2. School Improvement Programme C1/05 – School Attainment – Evidence Session	Papers considered :- Report of Mr K Simmonds, Head of Learning Effectiveness and Principal Inspector together with a powerpoint presentation. Briefing paper from Mr D Pettitt, Director of Children’s Services and DfES Summary on the White Paper on Higher Standards, Better Schools For All. Evidence :- i. Delivery of outcomes for attainment is the responsibility of of schools and governing bodies. ii. Role of the Local Authority to monitor, support and challenge the level of attainment. iii. Island now seen as neutral in terms of socio-economic factors. iv. Establishment of meetings between staff of schools at transition stage proving successful. v. Link Inspectors working with named pupils so that performance can be tracked. vi. Focus on assessment for learning so that needs of individual pupils are identified which then enables them to achieve their best outcome. vii. Flexible teaching rather than tick box culture. viii. Data indicated that Island pupils should be capable of attaining at least the national average. ix. Intention of the LEA to supply full school attainment data on a CD Rom to all elected members and the Chair of Governors with other information more widely available on the Council’s EduWight site. x. New Section 5 Inspection arrangements will evaluate school performance in a totally different manner. xi. Cluster working is a vital element in school improvement. xii. Role of LEA in school improvement is to challenge, monitor and intervene. xiii. Key stage 1 performance high against south east region but this is not sustained through other key stages. xiv. Performance in some clusters required improvement. xv. Value added performance for the Key Stage was poor. xvi. Work done in Ryde cluster had closed gap between reading and writing performance at Key Stage 2. xvii. Role for all teachers in literacy and English to facilitate improved attainment. xviii. An improvement in writing performance at Key Stage 2 to reach the national average required 2%-5% increase equating to approximately 50 pupils. xix. Improving trend at Key Stage 2 not sustained at Key Stage 3. xx. An improvement of 4%-5% in maths performance would involve 100-120 pupils improving attainment. xxi. Lack of improvement for 4 years in English at age 14 impacted on GCSE. xxii. Gap with national performance at Key Stage 4 was widening. xxiii. Significant weakness at the core subjects of English, Maths and Science impacted on overall achievement at GCSE. xxiv. 240 students had 4 C’s and 1 D at GCSE. xxv. GCSE attainment affected progress in post 16 studies. xxvi. Staying on rates for post 16 education was high. xxvii. Limited vocational alternatives available. xxviii. Need for continued enhancement of collaborative courses between all providers on the Island. xxix. The White Paper proposed some significant changes particularly with regard to the role of parents being able to set up schools or demand closure of failing ones. xxx. Schools could be operated as a self governing Trust either individually or in a federation. xxxi. The financial implications of the subsidised transport issues contained in the White Paper not detailed. xxxii. The Local Education Authority would become Children’s Services Authorities. Action required :- a) The requirement for urgent improvement by schools be noted. b) The full publication model for individual school performance be implemented; c) Governing Bodies should be required to consider the allocation of budget to the achievement of high standards for all pupils, particularly the allocation of carry forward surplus where it exists; d) The presentation of evidence from specific schools be requested, at future meetings, on how they are improving standards as part of the Commission’s monitoring of school performance; e) The Cabinet Member for Children be requested to use his full powers, including removal of delegation, to raise the standard of individual school performance.