Meeting documents

Apologies were received from David Babb, Dev Dhillon, John Chilver, Mark Shaw and Katrina Wood.

To declare any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

There were none.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained that the running order of the meeting had been amended slightly and copies of the new timings had been distributed.  On each item, the Committee would first hear from the main contributors, members of the Committee would have an opportunity to ask questions based on what they had heard and then Headteachers or Chairmen of Governors who had asked to speak would be invited to the table to give their comments.

Consideration of the 2013 Secondary Transfer Test (11 Plus) results and analysis.

Contributors

Mr Philip Wayne, Headteacher at Chesham Grammar School and Chairman of Bucks Grammar Schools and two other Grammar School Headteachers

Papers

The New Buckinghamshire Secondary Transfer Test: Performance of the First Year

The Chairman welcomed Mr Philip Wayne, Headteacher of Chesham Grammar School and Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools and his colleagues, Mr Alan Rosen, Headteacher of Aylesbury High School and Dr Andy Gillespie, Headteacher of Burnham Grammar School to the meeting.  The Chairman invited Mr Wayne, Mr Rosen and Dr Gillespie to give a brief presentation.

Mr Wayne explained that as all the Grammar schools in Bucks were now Academies they were responsible for their own admissions.  Mr Wayne was proud that all 13 schools had agreed to work together to preserve the co-ordinated testing process and to introduce the new 11+ test in 2013, which was designed by CEM.  The Grammar School Headteachers liaise with Upper School colleagues through the Bucks Association of Secondary Heads (BASH) and the Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools have maintained a good relationship with the local authority and CEM and have introduced a new Selection Review Panel process which is carried out by Headteachers and is supported by a well-trained clerk.

Mr Rosen gave members details of the new test, commenting that the test is blind to who is taking it, therefore it is the same for boys and girls and appropriate adjustments are given to SEN (Special Educational Needs) pupils. There is a science of how to design an appropriate test and this is why the Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools chose to use CEM as they have a great deal of experience and had carried out modelling for the tests. Clearly the test is designed to discriminate between candidates, otherwise it would not be a test. 

It was recognised that different groups do perform differently in education and this was a concern for professionals in Secondary Schools as well as members of the Select Committee.  Mr Rosen advised that the Strand report had led to more collaborative working between the Primary and Secondary sector in Bucks.  It would be surprising therefore if the 11 + test results were significantly different from the local picture – they reflect what goes on at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4.

With regards to the introduction of the new test, the Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools liaised with Primary colleagues to ensure that the test would fit in with their needs, for example, the test date was brought forward in order to free up more teaching time in the Autumn term.  Out of County children had previously been tested later but now sit the test on the same day as in county children. 

It was very important to consider the test results carefully – if boys and girls performed differently, you could judge that the test is unfair but there is more to it than that, you have to be very careful in drawing conclusions.  The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools and CEM will continue to monitor and revise the test every year going forward.

Dr Andy Gillespie provided members with an overview of the new Selection Review Process, which had been introduced as a mechanism for children who did not automatically qualify  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Evidence towards the Select Committee Inquiry into Improving Children’s Social Care, considering in particular, the role of school partners. 

Contributors

Headteachers and Chairmen of Governors of Buckinghamshire Schools

Mr Mike Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Mr Chris Munday, Service Director – Learning, Skills and Prevention

Mr Raza Khan, Chief Executive, Bucks Learning Trust

Mrs Amanda Taylor-Hopkins, Director of Education, Bucks Learning Trust

Papers

A short briefing paper on the Select Committee’s current Inquiries – Improving Children’s Social Care and Children’s Internet Safety.

The Chairman welcomed Ms Therese McAlorum, Education Safeguarding Advisor and Mrs Sarah Harris, Interim Manager, Children in Need to the meeting.  The Chairman advised that the Committee were conducting an Inquiry into Improving Children’s Social Care following the Ofsted inspection and they were keen to hear about Safeguarding from the School perspective.

Therese McAlorum reported that she managed a small team, funded by the Direct Schools Grant (DSG) to support Bucks schools on all aspects of Safeguarding.  There were three workers who aligned themselves to Aylesbury Vale, High Wycombe and Chiltern and South Bucks areas. They provided training to the Designated Safeguarding Leads in schools and also ran a duty service.  If you worked in a school and had a concern about a child it could feel very lonely, as safeguarding information is only shared on a need to know basis within school, so the duty service provide the opportunity to discuss the context of the concerns without naming the individual child.  The Education Safeguarding Advisors may then suggest referring the case to Social Care or perhaps signposting towards an Early Help service.  Mrs Sarah Harris commented that there had been some concerns about communication between Schools and Social Care but the First Response team also offer a no name consultation to help Schools make a more informed decision if Therese or her team were unavailable.

The Chairman then asked Mr Ray Plimsaul, Headteacher of Brushwood Juniors for his views and experiences of working with Social Care. Mr Plimsaul expressed the view that additional investment in Social Care was important as turnover of Social Workers had been a key issue for children in his school and he could already see some improvements.  However he was keen that professionals in Schools should not end up with an increased workload as a result of the local authorities Ofsted inspection result, for example, the new S11 reporting was far more onerous and has a massive implication for the work of Headteachers.  He also believed that senior leaders in Social Care should support their Social Workers and target schools that have a higher proportion of children in need in order to support the School leadership teams more effectively.

The Chairman thanked Mr Plimsaul for his comments and invited members’ questions as follows:

How are Schools dealing with Safeguarding and what is BCC policy on this?

By and large Schools do the best they can.  One of the central themes we discuss when training the Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) is how can you create a culture of Safeguarding within your school, as without this policies and procedures alone become meaningless.  We try to support the DSLs to create this culture of Safeguarding so they can ensure that a Teaching Assistant working with a young person who notices concerning changes in behaviour, knows the process to follow to escalate this to the DSL.  I think the success of creating this culture varies from school to school.

Mr Plimsaul commented that he feels his school  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Evidence towards the Select Committee Inquiry on Children’s Internet Safety, considering in particular, the role of school partners. 

Contributors

Headteachers and Chairmen of Governors of Buckinghamshire Schools

Mr Mike Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Mr Chris Munday, Service Director, Learning, Skills and Prevention

Mr Raza Khan, Chief Executive, Bucks Learning Trust

Mrs Amanda Taylor-Hopkins, Director of Education, Bucks Learning Trust

Mr Simon Billenness, Chairman of Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board’s e-safety Sub-Committee

Papers

Please refer to papers for agenda item 4

The Chairman welcomed Mr Simon Billenness, Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board’s (BSCB) e-safety Sub-Committee and Jeanette Cochrane, Deputy Headteacher from Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School to the meeting.

Simon Billenness explained that the e-safety Sub-Committee provide information and support to Schools, Youth Groups etc to help them promote online safety to children.  The e-safety Sub-Committee includes representatives from the local authority, Thames Valley Police, Barnardo’s R U Safe? and other voluntary organisations and part of their work is to deliver assemblies to children from primary school age through to Sixth Formers on how to stay safe online, often using materials from CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre). They also work with McAfee, a US Software Company based in Aylesbury who have also run workshops aimed at children and their parents to help them to identify risks associated with internet use.  These risks include cyberbullying, being groomed online or leaving a bad digital footprint.

The Chairman thanked Ray Plimsaul, Headteacher of Brushwood Junior School for contributing to this item and asked how his school promoted internet safety.  Mr Plimsaul detailed three elements to their approach – firstly ensuring the robustness of their IT systems to prevent adults outside of school being able to gain access. They had also just completed a whole series of assemblies on the theme of ‘Keeping Safe’ and internet safety had been incorporated in that and finally they would be holding a workshop in January aimed at Years 3 to 6 specifically focussing on being safe online. They had sent each child home with a booklet entitled ‘Watch Out!’ which was a multi-agency production and they hoped that parents would discuss this with their children at home.  With regards to mobile phone use in school, because Brushwood is a junior school not all children have a mobile phone, but those who do have them collected in at school and returned to them at the end of the day.  The school also give them advice on how to use their mobiles safely on the way to and from school, e.g. to be alert to potential muggings and avoid bullying.

The Chairman asked Jeanette Cochrane, Deputy Headteacher at Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School how they had approached internet safety.  She explained that they had featured two productions at school, including ‘Chelsea’s Choice’ which highlighted the issue of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and had followed these up with an assembly on anti-bullying.  They had also run e-safety assemblies using CEOP resources which had quite a hard hitting message.  Staying safe online would also be discussed in PSHE lessons.

With regard to mobile phone use at school, this was much more of an issue at Secondary level and Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School (SHFGS) had trialled a new approach of using Phone Zones.  This meant that there were specific places in school where children could access their phones at specific times of the day.  The school had found that parents often contacted their children on their mobiles  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

An opportunity for the Committee to explore how Schools are progressing with achieving higher Ofsted rankings, gathering evidence from key stakeholders.

Contributors

Headteachers and Chairmen of Governors of Buckinghamshire Schools

Mr Mike Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Mr Chris Munday, Service Director- Learning, Skills and Prevention

Mr Raza Khan, Chief Executive, Bucks Learning Trust

Mrs Amanda Taylor-Hopkins, Director of Education, Bucks Learning Trust

The Chairman welcomed Mr Raza Khan, Chief Executive, Bucks Learning Trust and Mrs Amanda Taylor-Hopkins, Director of Education, Bucks Learning Trust (BLT) to the meeting and invited them to outline the BLT’s approach to School Improvement and in particular the work they were undertaking to support schools in moving from Good to Outstanding.

Mrs Taylor-Hopkins began by explaining that the BLT wanted to support all schools to reach their potential.  A school an individual attends should not be seen as a barrier to success, instead school should be a platform for them to launch from. In the past School Improvement had traditionally focussed on progressing from Satisfactory to Good.  Outstanding is very hard to achieve and even harder for Schools to retain.  BLT wanted to intervene with schools far earlier rather than waiting to see a decline in performance and had introduced School Reviews to identify key areas for development.  Often there can be five years between Ofsted inspections and this is too long to wait to rectify problems.

The BLT were about to launch key packages for Good and Outstanding schools to help them to improve and to maintain standards in the longer term.  HMCI has announced a new approach which would see more regular inspections so schools would need to be ready for this.

The BLT valued the expertise available across the county and wanted to engage with experts and encourage them to share their specialist skills.  They were also encouraging schools to support each other through sharing best practice.  The BLT wanted school staff to improve their skills through ongoing training and development.  Previously the Committee had been given examples of Heads being seconded into schools in order to improve standards.

BLT interventions needed to be appropriate, individual, focussed and have an impact on a school.  As well as promoting co-operation between Bucks schools they have also looked nationally for inspiration.  The BLT were also working with communities with challenge and were keen to work with schools in engaging more effectively with their communities.  The Committee had previously heard about the BLT’s work on narrowing the Gap.

After Christmas the BLT would be holding some network events for Good and Outstanding schools and they would be benchmarking them against schools across the UK.  Governor events would also be offered.  32% of Bucks schools were currently ranked Outstanding compared to a national average of 21%.  During 2014 8 schools had gained or maintained Outstanding following Ofsted inspection.

Andrew Walker, Chairman of the Bucks Association of School Governors, commented that his school, which was ranked Outstanding, felt that offering school to school support helped the community and was very good for the development of their own teaching staff.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Taylor-Hopkins for this introduction and invited members’ questions as follows:

Can you give us any more specific examples of what the BLT has done and how you can demonstrate your effectiveness?

We are very pleased with the rapid rate of improvement in schools achieving Good or Outstanding.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To note the next meeting of the Education, Skills and Children’s Services Select Committee on 9^th December 2014 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury.

To note the next meeting of the Education, Skills and Children’s Services Select Committee on Tuesday 9^th December 2014 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury.