Directorate of Children’s Services Meeting for Chairs and Vice Chairs Summer Term Thursday 12 May 2011 6.30 pm - 8.00 pm Saltwells EDC

Directorate of Children’s Services

Meeting for Chairs and Vice Chairs Summer Term

Thursday 12 May 2011

6.30 pm - 8.00 pm

Saltwells EDC


Welcome

Dave Perrett

Assistant Director

(Education, Play and Learning)



Introduction to the Summer Term Agenda

Carol Fletcher

Governor Support Officer


Introduction to the Summer Term Agenda

• Item 2 – Declaration of Interests - Register of Business Interests

• Item 13 – Governor Training Information

• Item 14 – Dudley Association of Governing Bodies

• Item 15 – Dudley Model Pay Policy - Blue

• Item 16 – Model Policy, Process and Guidance for Managing Support Staff Employees on a Probationary Period - Yellow

• Item 17 – Model Personal Review and Development Policy for School Support Staff - Lilac



New Ofsted Framework and Impact on Vulnerable Groups

Huw PowellEducation Improvement Adviser

Patrick FineganHeadteacher of the Virtual School for

Looked After Children


Huw Powell

Education Improvement Adviser


Rationale

“Inspection should be focused on the things that have the most impact on improving outcomes for children and young people:

• The quality of teaching and learning, backed by excellent leadership and management, and good discipline and behaviour

What it means in practice is that schools will be judged on a smaller number of core aspects than before, but we will be examining them in greater depth.”

“… also introduces greater proportionality into inspections. We will target our resources where they are needed most: on the weakest schools, particularly those which are not improving quickly enough.”

“inspectors will continue to take account of schools’ self-evaluation”


Achievement

• The standards attained by pupils by the time they leave the school

• How well all pupils learn, the quality of their work and the progress they have made since joining the school

• The progress of disabled pupils and pupils with SEN

• How gaps are narrowing between different groups of pupils

• In primary schools, pupils’ attainment in reading by the age of six and by the time they leave school, and their standards of numeracy

• In secondary schools, pupils’ progress and standards in literacy.


Progress Measures

“When CVA is withdrawn, we propose to use straightforward value-

added measures in place of most of the CVA ones. These will indicate

the progress of pupils since the time they joined the school and they will

help inspectors to assess the impact the school has made on pupils’

progress. We propose to develop these measures further to include

value-added information for particular groups of pupils. We will

continue to use any relevant available data about the school’s intake of

pupils, and judgements about attainment and progress will be made in

relation to comparisons with similar schools.”


• How effectively pupils are taught to read and to develop their skills in literacy.

The quality of teaching

Pupils’ behaviour and safety

• Their attendance and punctuality at school and in lessons

• How well they are protected from bullying

• The views of pupils and the views of parents and carers.


Effectiveness of leadership and management

• How effectively the school is improving and has capacity for sustaining its improvement

• The accuracy of the school’s self-evaluation and the use made of its findings

• The appropriateness of the curriculum in helping all pupils to achieve well

• The impact of governance on school improvement

• How well the school ensures equality of opportunity, promotes the confidence and engagement of parents and works in partnership with other schools and external agencies to improve further.


The overall effectiveness of the school

• The achievement of all pupils

• Behaviour and safety

• The quality of teaching

• Leadership and management with consideration of how well the school promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

• To what extent do you agree we should give more weight to the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement when making a judgement about the overall effectiveness of the school?


The effectiveness of the sixth form and the early years

• To what extent do you agree we should report on the school sixth form within the four key areas, covering teaching, behaviour, leadership and achievement?

• To what extent do you agree we should report on the Early Years Foundation Stage within the four key areas, covering teaching, behaviour, leadership and achievement?


Inspection arrangements (1)

For Outstanding and Good schools – From three years after inspection Ofsted will do a ‘risk assessment’ taking into account:

• Current attainment and progress + changes since last inspection

• Pupils’ attendance

• Findings from any interim HMI survey visit

• Any ‘significant issues’ brought to Ofsted’s attention.

+ They intend to take greater account of parents’ and carers’ views by inviting them to answer a range of questions about their children’s school via Ofsted’s website.



Satisfactory schools – “introduce a more differentiated approach.”

40% to get a monitoring inspection (as currently) – focus will be where some or all of:

• Leadership and management are satisfactory in last inspection

• Results are particularly volatile or below minimum expected for schools

• School judged satisfactory overall in each of last two inspections

• No aspect was judged better than satisfactory at last inspection

• There is a worrying level of parental complaints.



Satisfactory schools….

+

“We propose to lower the threshold and bring forward a full inspection if the monitoring inspection suggests that the school has made limited or poor progress in improving its performance.

• Standards of attainment and progress, including reading standards in primary schools, are persistently low and there are few signs the teaching strategies adopted are bringing about the necessary improvements

• The quality of teaching and learning varies greatly across subjects and/or year groups and is not being tackled effectively

• Persistent disruption in lessons and misconduct around the school are impeding pupils’ progress and undermining parents’ confidence in the school”.



For ‘Inadequate’ schools:

1 Notice to Improve

• Earlier monitoring inspection after about three months and a re-inspection within a further six months.

2 Special Measures

“We propose to increase expectations of the speed of recovery for schools requiring special measures.”

• Bringing forward the first monitoring inspection to a few weeks following the inspection and increasing the frequency of subsequent monitoring inspections.

• If a school is improving only slowly, if at all ….. highlight the need for governing bodies (and LA) …. to take more ‘vigorous action’.



Patrick Finegan

Headteacher of the Virtual School

for Looked After Children


Secondary School PE Teacher


Primary Headteacher


Ofsted Inspector


Local Authority Officer


School Improvement Partner


Lead Ofsted Inspector


Headteacher of the Virtual School


Role of the Headteacher of the Virtual School

The Virtual School Headteacher role should be undertaken by a person with

substantial, current or previous senior level experience of supporting

vulnerable children in educational settings, preferably including experience of

school senior leadership. The post should be at Head of Service or Assistant

Head of Service level and have direct links with the Director of Children’s

Services and the Lead Member for Children’s Services. It is recommended

that the Virtual School Headteacher role is integrated with that of the Looked

After Children Education Service to form the Virtual School. This should help

achieve a good balance between strategic and operational aspects of the

Virtual School.


The three key areas of responsibility of a Virtual School Headteacher

• To make sure that there is a system to track and monitor the attainment and progress of looked after children


• To champion the educational needs of looked after children across the authority and those placed out-of-authority



• To ensure that all looked after children have a robust and effective personal education plan and access one-to-one support, including personal tuition where appropriate.



One to one tuition/extra tuition

Dudley extra tuition is not the same as the National 1-2-1

National 1-2-1 places another significant adult in the life of a LAC and then takes them away after 10 weeks. This is the pattern of behaviour that characterises the overwhelming reason majority of LAC fail to succeed in education……..stability.


Dudley Project

• Has been in existence for 3 years• Provides a child with a teacher as a private tutor for 1 hour a week for the

whole year, and for some it has been 3 years• Gives the child a consistent adult in the school who they can turn to for

advice• Targets the needs of the individual – not just literacy.


Results

• 2009 Dudley LAC achieved 7% 5 GCSEs (inc M&E)

• 2010 Dudley LAC achieved 32% 5 GCSEs (inc M&E)

• 2010 Dudley pupils receiving Extra Tuition achieved 40% 5 GCSEs (inc M&E)

• National average for LAC is 12%

• Dudley now 3rd in the country and 2 LAs with better results have half the number of LAC

• 2009 100% of all Dudley LAC receiving Extra Tuition achieve 2 whole levels of progress in English in Key Stage 2

• 2010 English SATs 70% of children receiving Extra Tuition achieved Level 4+.


Statutory Duties

The whole authority has a responsibility to act as the Corporate parent for children in care and provide the kind of loyal support that any good parent would do.

• It is a statutory requirement that every child in care has a Care Plan, a Placement Plan and a Personal Education Plan drawn up by Social Care

• SECTION7 (1) the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970


Education of Children in the Care of Dudley MBC

Dudley MBC will ensure that:-

• Children and young people in care have education, care and support

which prepares them for the adulthood and citizenship

• The education of children and young people in care will be prioritised,

valued and supported

• Children and young people in care have equal access to educational

provision and opportunities

• Continuity of education and care placement is prioritised.


Personal Education Plan (PEPs)

• Monitoring PEPs

• Follow up issues

• Attend initial PEPs when possible

• Provide training

• Support new social workers in doing PEPs

• Constantly evaluate and provide support material

• Provide initial training within the initial induction training

• Notify social workers of need for initial PEPs

• Notify social workers and team leaders of outstanding PEPs.


Care Matters showed:

• We don’t intervene early enough to support families

• System does not compensate enough for early harm – importance of resilience

• Children in care lack a consistent adult

• Children move between placements too frequently and placement quality is not high enough

• Key services don’t do enough to help children in care get their lives back on track

• Children leave care poorly equipped for adult life.


Achievement is poor because:

• Lack of stability disrupts the education of children in care• Too much time spent out of school – higher rates of absence and

exclusion • Children in care lack sufficient support for their education and, on

average, are in the lowest performing schools• Professionals don’t always work together to support the education of

children in care• Poor health and wellbeing, and other factors, create barriers to

learning.


What Dudley does well

• Extra Tuition• Standards• Chases quality PEPs• Impacts on attendance and NEET using an EWO and Connexions worker• Virtual Headteacher attends Primary and Secondary Headteacher

meetings establishing a personal relationship with Headteachers• Attempting to ensure all Secondary children have access to the Internet for

learning• Progress of LAC on every governing body agenda• Tracking pupils in order to help them achieve 5 GCSEs including M&E• Boarding School project to help children remain with grandparents or

relatives• Effective Designated Teacher training including attachment theory.


Challenges

• 25% of pregnant teenagers are looked after children

• Removal/Reduction of PEA allowances

• Removal of training fund for Designated Teachers

• LA Staffing cuts

• Challenge without support!


Pupil Premium

• £430 per year

• Held by Virtual Headteacher and given to schools termly

• Triggered by Child’s termly PEP

• Ofsted will ask what you spent the money on

• Impact

• FSM pupils – 1 large sum

• LAC – individual impact!


Recent News

• Partnership with Stourbridge Rugby Club

• Chatback latest film venture on Education

• Over 50% schools signed up for 1 day a term statutory training for designated teachers (only £150 for the year)

• What are other schools doing to comply?

• Tracking pupils as corporate parent using schools’ portal.


Recent News

• Supporting all LAC in FE and University

• 5 Dudley LAC in University in last 15 years

• 5 Dudley LAC currently at University

• 15 Dudley LAC at University in next 2 years

• Sustainability?


Role model for Virtual Headteachers

Documents

Directorate of Children’s Services Meeting for Chairs and Vice Chairs Summer Term Thursday 12 May 2011 6.30 pm - 8.00 pm Saltwells EDC