Minutes of the Schools Partnership Board Meeting

Minutes of the Schools’ Partnership Board Meeting

Thursday 9 September 2010

In attendance:

Cllr Stephen Castle (Chair)

Terry Reynolds – Essex County Council

Alison Fiala – Essex County Council

David Lenz – ESGA

Doretta Cowie - EPHA

Gareth Jones – Essex County Council

Greta Taylor - ESGA

Jeremy Gush – Essex County Council & Unison

John Hunter - ESGA

Linda Findlay – EPHA

Mike Blant – EPHA

Sue Hammond – ASHE

Amanda Bentley (notes) - Essex County Council

Apologies: Rod Lane; Jerry Glazier; David Crowe; Chris Bent; Gina Schleiman

Item / Lead/Action
1. / Minutes of last meeting held on 21 July 2010 and matters arising
The minutes of the meeting held on 21 July 2010 were agreed.
Matters arising
Item 3. SEN Provision
The SEN paper was still awaiting Member agreement. Once the paper had been approved it would be discussed at a future meeting.
Item 4. Update on BSF and ColchesterSchools
CllrCastle advised that there is continued representation to the Government regarding the BSF Funding decision, both formally and informally. There will be a further announcement on the Government’s Capital Programme at the end of the year. / Future agenda
2. / Future Direction for Essex
CllrCastle said that we are currently in the greatest period of change for some time. Changes are being introduced at a rapid pace and he had concerns about the way some of the cuts are being done. CllrCastlespoke about the dialogue he is having with Michael Gove about what he sees as the LA role and lobbying for education funds. The discussions include issues around Academies and FreeSchools.
CllrCastle spoke about being broadly supportive of a move to a more independent school sector and agrees with a varied landscape for schools in Essex, including Free schools and Trusts. The LA brings important democratic control over the whole landscape and will challenge failing schools.
At the current time the Secretary of State had issued an Academy Order for six schools – Honywood, Debden Park, King Harold, RA Butler Junior, RA Butler Infant and Flitch Green Primary. No funding agreements have been made as yet.
The meeting discussed primary school places and the challenge around this. The LA has a sophisticated methodology for predicting future places but is not foolproof. A number of infant and junior schools are amalgamating. The impact of Free schools is hard to factor in to future planning and will result in spare places.
Terry gave the current budget position. There is a 25% reduction in the area-based grant. Direct school improvement activities will be protected but other areas will face a larger than 25% reduction. Terry outlined the revenue savings including BSF reductions and Capital funding streams for Extended Services (uncommitted budget). The Early Years capital stream for Children’s Centres is not affected except where there are no projects in development. The LA is currently in discussions with the DfE over the Early Years capital grant and the nature of uncommitted funding which has caused immense problems for some schools.
Alison Fiala spoke of the frustrations of not getting a definite commitment from the DfE around funding for a range of initiatives. The ISP funding has been pulled as has the Making Good Progress single level tests. Terry explained that The Every Child an Opportunity initiative was part of the deprivation subsidy in Extended Services. The Extended Services funding for next year will be mainstreamed but it is not known what the grant will be.
The meeting discussed the difficulties and uncertainties of what will come out of the Common Spending Review. Services will be cut but schools will still need support from the LA. CllrCastle said until the White Paper is published a lot is speculation but school improvement is a priority and schools will be supported. It was important to lobby MPs to make them aware of the repercussions if drastic cuts are made; the most vulnerable children will suffer the most. It was also agreed schools needed to work together more to share and collaborate expertise.
3. / Provisional 2010 Exam Results
Terry circulated and spoke to the attached paper on exam results giving the current summary with the caveat that these are subject to change.

The following were highlighted:
Early Years and Foundation stage has improved.
KS2 L4+ English and Maths - the 74% national figure is not secure and likely to change downwards
Key Stage 2: results show girls are behind in maths and boys behind in English. Attainment of FSM pupils fell from 52% to 48%. This figure was not satisfactory and work would be done to look at the distribution and reasons for this.The schools below floor target and the Hard to Shift schools were noted. These would continue to be monitored.
GCSE results: These had shown an excellent improvement and CllrCastle had expressed his congratulations on the results. The 5% improvement predicted by Gareth Jones was even better and currently at 5.9%. The national figure was not available but informal results showed the national increase was lower than Essex. There is now only one school below floor target. There is significant improvement in National Challenge and Gaining Ground schools.
The GCSE results were very good news. Alison Fiala said that once all KS1 data was collected an analysis would be distributed. Doretta Cowie spoke about the difficulties she experienced returning all the writing papers as they were inadequate and having to re-mark them herself. Alison said the results at level 5 were disappointing.
Sue Hammond requested clarification on the request from the LA for data that was similar to the school report card. Terry explained that the DfE would not be releasing details on post-18 students unable to access higher education. The school report card was being used as a consistent way of collecting data from schools and colleges on A level resultsand would not be published.
Alison Fiala said she would put FSM on the heads’ meeting agenda. Gareth Jones would invite Steve Strand to a secondary heads’ meeting to discuss 1:1 tuition. / Alison Fiala
Alison Fiala
Gareth Jones
4. / Any Other Urgent Business
1:1 Tuition
Sue Hammond spoke about the concerns around 1:1 Tuition having to be done on-line and the difficulties this was causing schools. Alison Fiala agreed to action to see if there were any alternative methods that could be used.
YPLA
Sue Hammond requested a discussion at a future meeting on the YPLA funding issues and how this will affect Essex in the future. Terry said there were number of implications that needed to be resolved and were being taken up with the DfE. He suggested that the best forum for this discussion would be at a future secondary heads’ meeting.
Regional Development Agency
It was agreed to discuss the proposed joint Kent and Greater Essex Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) at the next meeting and invite a member from the Economic Regeneration team to the meeting. It was important that education played a part in the LEP. / Alison Fiala
Agenda
Future meeting dates:
3 November, 9.00-11.00, Committee Room 5
12 January, 9.00-11.00, Committee Room 6