Agenda item

(a)       That the Committee confirmed it had been able to effectively scrutinise the work of GwE in their delivery of school improvement services to Flintshire schools during the Covid-19 pandemic;

(b)       That the Committee acknowledged and applauded the extensive range of support delivered by GwE to enable schools to quickly and effectively change their models of educational provision in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic; and

(c)        That the Committee acknowledged the effective partnership working between GwE and the Education Portfolio to ensure that Flintshire schools received high quality and timely support in an unprecedented period of change and anxiety.

The Chief Officer (Education & Youth) introduced the School Improvement and Examination 2021 Update report and welcomed the following GwE officers to the meeting, who would assist in presenting the report:-

• Mr. Martyn Froggett, Secondary Core Lead for Flintshire
• Mr. David Edwards, Primary Core Lead for Flintshire
• Mrs. Gaynor Murphy, Secondary Improvement Advisor 
• Mrs. Vicky Lees, Primary Improvement Advisor

The Chief Officer commented on the Blended Learning report presented to the Committee at its meeting in December and explained that this report gave a broader overview of the support the regional service had provided to all local authorities during the emergency situation.  The focus had been on the well-being of learners, school communities and staff which had helped to shape and maintain the focus on school improvement in all schools whilst providing support during the pandemic.  

The Chief Officer provided an overview of the support provided for core skills of literacy and numeracy and the professional development plan delivered by GwE for teachers and classroom assistants to ensure quality learning whether in the classroom or via digital remote learning.  

The detailed presentation on Accelerating Learning Programme was provided which covered the following areas:-

• Context – Literacy and numeracy, delivering and maintaining high quality teaching across the curriculum with high quality, structured and targeted interventions;
• Accelerating the learning;
• Primary – examples of learning sequences, evidence reviews and teaching and learning strategies;
• Accelerating the learning within the Secondary Sector;
• Literacy Toolkit;
• Literacy Targeted Offer;
• GCSE English Language – Inference, Accelerate;
• Mathemateg GwE;
• Impact

In response to a comment from Councillor Ian Smith, it was agreed that a larger print copy of the accelerated skills model, shown as part of the presentation, be circulated to the Committee following the meeting.

            Mr David Hytch thanked officers for the report and presentation which he felt had been informative and commented on the positive co-ordination and collaboration between the local authority, schools and GwE.  He commented on the responses to individual surveys, as shown within the appendix to the report and questioned whether this related to Wales as a whole rather than just Flintshire and suggested that it should be highlighted within the report that the wellbeing of pupils and staff was of the highest priority.  He also commented on the immense strain schools were feeling in getting the balance right between school improvement and prioritising staff and learner wellbeing, as stated within the report, and whilst he welcomed advisors looking to verify the quality of learning, in the circumstances he hoped that the pressure schools were under would be taken into account.  The Chief Officer responded that it was not their intention to put extra pressure on schools but the local authority had responsibility standards in schools and engaged regularly with Estyn.  She reassured Members that additional pressure was not being put on schools, it was a case of monitoring the situation and adjusting support accordingly.  

            Mr. Froggett explained that it was not possible to undertake the usual standard of quality assurance and confirmed that focus was around supporting schools during a difficult time with the priority being on wellbeing.  Discussions had been held with Head Teachers and the role of GwE was to mitigate their concerns and support them through the emergency.  Mr. Edwards supported the comments and gave examples of live sessions provided at the requests of schools.      

            In response to a question from Mrs Bartlett, the Chief Officer outlined the importance of providing support for parents and advised that GwE had been proactive around this issue when advising schools of what an effective blended learning offer should be.  A document had been provided to schools which provided guidance on communicating with parents to provide reassurance.  Mrs. Gaynor Murphy advised of videos provided to schools to share with parents to assist them in supporting their children with basic literacy.  Mrs. Bartlett thanked officers for their response and commented on her own personal experience and the positive way in which schools had adapted during the emergency situation, but raised concerns around the wellbeing of teachers and parents.

            Councillor Dave Mackie commented on literacy and numeracy support and asked if this was additional to existing support.  He also commented on accelerated learning and asked if this meant tasks being completed in less time and was it improving the availability of materials.  Mrs.  Lees responded that the Accelerated Learning Programme provided schools with tools to measure where the pupils were with their online learning to assist when they returned to face to face learning in schools.  The Programme strengthened literacy and numeracy skills and provided support to help pupils progress.

            The Chairman thanked GwE for the way in which it had responded to the emergency situation and for the packages of support provided to schools and parents which were underpinned by the wellbeing of students.  He commented on the challenge for GwE in liaising with schools to create grades for GCSE and A Levels and asked if the national reading and numeracy tests would still need to be taken.  The Chief Officer responded that there were significant challenges ahead which was why joint working in schools was key to identify the sources of evidence upon which to base those judgements and this would be shared with pupils and parents. This information would be very transparent with learners aware of the date when the final assessments had to be submitted. Qualification Wales were working to provide guidance on this.  It was a significant challenge for schools and GwE would be providing structured support but it would be schools making these decisions not GwE.  Mrs. Lees confirmed that the Welsh Government National Personalised Assessments for reading and numeracy were still live and schools were able to access each child’s account but there was no requirement for schools to carry out these tests during the current situation.  The Chief Officer confirmed that this guidance had been circulated via the Head Teachers’ Federation and Mr. Edwards also confirmed all schools were informed that they could use these tests for diagnostic purposes, as appropriate. 

            Councillor Mackie commented on the various training options available to teachers through GwE and suggested that information on how many teachers had taken part in the training sessions, their feedback on the training sessions and how many training sessions had taken place, could be included in future reports.  He also commented on pupils who were not engaging and asked what additional support was being provided to assist pupils to re-engage and how what support would be provided to enable these pupils not to fall too far behind when they returned to face to face learning in schools.  The Chief Officer referred to the Professional Learning Offer which had been provided as part of the report, which enabled the Committee to view the range and depth of professional learning courses being offered to schools.  Mr. Froggett reported on the many training opportunities available and the National Programmes, such as, MPQH and middle leadership which had restarted recently with strong subscriptions from Flintshire.  The Chief Officer said that schools would engage with whatever aspect of support they felt they needed and explained that the virtual offer also made the training more accessible and it was for schools in discussions with the Supporting Improvement Advisors to engage with any programmes they felt they required.

            The Leader of the Council commented on the range of techniques being used by teachers to engage with young people during the emergency situation and said that structured play activities would be required to allow pupils to develop both academically and socially.  He expressed caution around the expectations being imposed on young people, especially younger children who would need to adjust to the structure of school once again and that all young people needed to be assessed to ascertain their needs.  He had written to the Minister for Education as WLGA Spokesperson for Education requesting additional resources to meet the cost of additional support which would be required. 

            Mrs. Wendy White commended the packages of training provided in Flintshire and provided information on the training and development of leaders that was being provided in Catholic Schools and that this was available to any teacher or associate member of staff.  This programme sat across the North West diocese and was available online with the focus on developing people coming into North Wales especially with regard to talent management to highlight what Wales had to offer in their fantastic schools.  This was working in harmony with Flintshire.

            Mrs Bartlett spoke in support of the comments made by the Leader of the Council and said that she was very pleased that the focus in Wales had been on well-being and to not allow these children to think they had failed.  She felt that pupils should be congratulated for how they had developed new ways to entertaining themselves, supported their families, developed new interests and progressed their IT skills during this pandemic. 

The recommendations outlined within the report, including the additional wording that the Committee applauds the range of support delivered by GwE, as suggested the Chairman, were proposed by Councillor Paul Cunningham and seconded by Mrs Lynne Bartlett.              

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Committee confirmed it had been able to effectively scrutinise the work of GwE in their delivery of school improvement services to Flintshire schools during the Covid-19 pandemic;

(b)       That the Committee acknowledged and applauded the extensive range of support delivered by GwE to enable schools to quickly and effectively change their models of educational provision in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic; and

(c)        That the Committee acknowledged the effective partnership working between GwE and the Education Portfolio to ensure that Flintshire schools received high quality and timely support in an unprecedented period of change and anxiety.