Issue - meetings

(a)       That the Committee accept the Annual Report from GwE; and

(b)       That the positive impact on the regional service in supporting Flintshire schools during the pandemic and in their ongoing preparations for the implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales be noted.

            The Senior Manager for School Improvement introduced the report which provided an overview of the support afforded by the Regional School Improvement Service (GwE) and their annual report on the work across North Wales.  She referenced the work carried out during the pandemic which included remote and blended learning, support and guidance to schools and also the national reform and new curriculum and thanked them for the dedicated support that they had provided to Flintshire schools.

            The report and presentation were provided by Mr. Martyn Froggett, Secondary Core Lead for Flintshire, Mr. David Edwards, Primary Core Lead for Flintshire from the Regional School Improvement Services (GwE) and included an update on the support provided and its impact on schools. 

The presentation contained detailed information on:-

• The general support provided for schools and the local authority since January
• Support provided to schools following the Estyn Recommendations on completion of the thematic review
• Planning and support for schools for Curriculum for Wales in September

            Councillor Mackie thanked officers for the report.  He commented on the content of the report and information, such as, the number of school visits but asked for information on the purposes for the visits.  He also asked for generalised feedback from people who had taken courses, information on professional learning and the number of Flintshire officers taking part with their feedback and comparisons with other authorities in North Wales to see how Flintshire’s professional training programme was developing. 

            In response, the Senior Manager said that this was the North Wales Annual Report from GwE and agreed some elements of the report had been to committee previously but that the slides provided positive information on the more recent situation in schools.  As all performance measures, national reporting and examination system results had been suspended and the focus was on support to ensure that provision was in place.

            The Secondary Core Lead understood the comments made by Councillor Mackie but said that the usual data was not available to present and that well-being had been at the heart of their approach to schools.  He confirmed data was available on the uptake of the courses provided and what was happening in Flintshire.  He agreed that moving forward to include this information in the reports from a Flintshire and comparative basis and added information on the participation of the Curriculum for Wales’ workshops would be available soon and could also be included.  The Primary Core Lead agreed with the comments made and said the robust data was missing at the moment because of the pandemic but that this would be included when more firmer data was available.  He reported on the new admin role for leadership programmes who would dis-aggregate the data for each Local Authority to enable this to be presented to committee.   Support had been provided to Head Teachers around self-evaluation reports as Schools had been working under so much pressure with Head Teachers not having the time to reflect on the positives and areas for improvement. 

            The Chair praised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9