Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on the following dates and authorise the Chairman to sign them:

• 7 June 2011
• 5 July 2011 (special)
• 28 July 2011 (joint OSC)

The Minutes of the meeting held on 7 June 2011, as well as the special meeting held on 5 July 2011 and the joint meeting held on 28 July 2011 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee considered a report on Havering’s New School Improvement Strategy, presented by the Principal Inspector of the Havering School Improvement Service.

In light of the forthcoming Education Bill, 2011, and the wide-ranging and significant changes to both funding and policy in relation to schools and school improvement, the Department for Education (DfE) directed all Local Authorities to submit detailed plans on their strategy to support all schools, and especially those that were failing to provide a satisfactory standard of education for its pupils/students, or those schools that were performing below the new government floor standards.

The report summarised Havering’s response to the DfE request and set out the strategy that would take Havering’s school improvement services forward in the coming months and years.

The Committee noted that the 2011 Education Bill, which took forward the  White Paper, The Importance of Teaching (November 2010), charged all Local Authorities with a ‘strong strategic role as champions for parents and families, for vulnerable pupils and of educational excellence.’ The new School Improvement document set out how Havering Local Authority was already ensuring rapid improvements for maintained schools performing below the floor standard, in an Ofsted category and those of some concern - and it set out how all schools would be supported that wish to collaborate to improve educational performance for all pupils. In Havering there was a commitment to high achievement through partnership work with all stakeholders. As an education community Havering was committed to using all resources, both core staff and the great reservoir of skill and expertise present in schools, collectively to enhance pupils’ learning and improve the overall quality of provision.

The Committee also considered the specific and general guiding principles underlying the Strategy before looking at the work that Havering Improvement and Advisory Service undertook in schools in the borough. The Committee was informed that as an education community, Havering was using all its resources collectively to enhance pupils’ learning and improve the overall quality of provision. There was a collective commitment to open, transparent communication and honest and frank debate. The LA regularly reviewed its practice in relation to its key activities with representative groups of schools and governors, particularly in relation to the nature of the monitoring, challenge, intervention and any core elements of the support provided.

There was, with the full agreement of schools, a commitment to:

·            partnership working;

·            support their ongoing development of effective school self? evaluation and school improvement planning;

·            offer appropriate challenge and intervention, this being based on rigorous analysis of all available data;

·            monitor and evaluate effectively to identify potential weaknesses at an early stage so as to enable early intervention;

·            apply the criteria used to determine the need for intervention;

The purpose was to develop ways of working, in partnership, that would build on existing effective practice. 

Crucially, there were three strands of work which Havering’s School Improvement Service undertook, broken down as follows:

·        Core Responsibility: Council Core Funding and School Funding Forum support for SCC  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Committee Members are invited to indicate to the Chairman, items within this Committee’s terms of reference they would like to see discussed at a future meeting.

Note: it is not considered appropriate for issues relating to individuals to be discussed under this provision.

The Committee discussed the items it would consider at future meetings and agreed the following:

·        Update on the take up of college places in Havering

·        Careers service being offered in schools in light of the discontinuation of the Connexions Service.

·        Provision of Summer Schools

·        Budget Variance

·        (after Christmas) Update on the success of the post-16 pilot scheme for SEN pupils.