Agenda item

In a change to published agenda running order the Committee agreed to hear the item on the Scrutiny of the Portfolio Holder for Business, Education and Skills first and the report on School Exclusions second.

Councillor Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Business, Education and Skill introduced the report to the Committee updating them on progress with respect to Education priorities within the Council Plan. He highlighted the following points:

(a)  86% of pupils attend a school that is rated either good or outstanding by Ofsted. This is up from 69% in 2015. This makes Nottingham better performing than statistical neighbours and other authorities in the East Midlands (both at 84%);

(b)  As some pupils who live in Nottingham City attend schools just over the boundary in County Nottingham City also monitors their performance and liaises with County Council over any concerns. Improvement Plans are shared with the City Council;

(c)  The Council are working with academy schools and Trusts which fall outside the Council’s remit, as well as maintained school to bring about improvement;

(d)  The newly formed charitable Nottingham School’s Trust works with all but 2 of the remaining maintained schools to help share resources and encourages collaboration;

(e)  Schools across the City and those schools just over the boundary are regularly reviewed and RAG rated to ensure good or outstanding education.  There are a number of large academies that are now due for Ofsted inspections and there will be peaks and troughs in performance;

(f)  94% of pupils received their first or second choice schools in Primary education. There have been an additional 4000 places created and there are further expansion programmes taking place to create more class spaces in high demand areas;

(g)   The Primary School absence rate has reduced and is closer to the national average and has remained stable for some time. The Secondary School absence rate has also reduced and the gap between that and the national average has narrowed;

(h)  The Council continues to push the “Every Day Matters” message to parents to emphasise the importance of attendance, and truancy patrols are undertaken in different areas around the city;

(i)  Following the court case involving  the Isle of Wight around what “regular attendance” meant there are tighter guidelines for parents and schools around unauthorised absence. This is likely to result in better figures in the future;

(j)  GCSE results are still a challenge with just over 30% achieving a strong pass. The grading system and bench mark for a strong pass has changed a number of times over the last few years and consistent measuring has been difficult.

(k)  The gap between Nottingham City’s achievement of strong pass at GCSE and the national average is narrowing but progress could be quicker and more effective;

(l)  All but one secondary school in Nottingham is an academy and so the opportunity to intervene and improve schools is limited.

(m)  Over the last ten years exclusion rates have risen significantly. There are concerns raised from various sectors that schools are doing this as a method of pushing up their results;

(n)  From April 2018 the Fair Access system will be returning in house to Nottingham City Council. Strong letters have been sent to head teachers reminding them that permanent exclusion should be used as a last resort when all other interventions have been exhausted. The Regional Commissioner for Schools has also been altered to the high levels of permanent exclusion within Nottingham;

(o)  A work group has been set up to look at early identification and intervention for children at trisk of exclusion;

(p)  A pilot scheme has been established to focus on inclusion within schools. 5 schools have signed up and have received devolved funding providing that there are no permanent exclusions. This has lead to no permanent exclusions within these schools and has shown that schools are able to support these pupils;

Following questions and comments from the Committee the following points were made:

(q)  Statistical neighbours are those cities who are statistically comparable to Nottingham City. They include, Southampton, Hull, Bristol, Salford and Sandwell. These are comparable to Nottingham City in terms of population, deprivation etc;

(r)  The Check and Challenge hotline is mainly for other service providers to report concerns about school nonattendance, however if citizens are concerned about neighbourhood children not attending school then they can also use the hotline;

(s)  The target for first and second choice schools is 100% however 94% is very good and better than many other local authorities across the country.

(t)  It is unlikely that the 100% target will be achieved easily as families continue to apply for unrealistic school places, the achievement of this target is also affected by families only applying for one school place where as the strong guidance suggests applying for up to four places;

(u)  A further area for improvement is in-year allocation of school places when a child is moving from one school to another, either coming into the authority or within the authority;

(v)  The National curriculum has become much more exam focused and this “one size fits all” approach is not suitable for children. This is impacting on results as this single style of education does not suit all children;

(w)  There is additional work going into the transition between primary level and secondary level education with additional support for children making the transition. Progress made at primary age is not being sustained through to secondary;

(x)  Ofsted are now indicating levels of exclusion in their reports and the Regional commissioner for schools is taking a robust approach. The media interest in the national issue of using exclusion as a way of improving grade, all of which is working towards changing the approach schools may choose to take;

(y)  As all but one secondary school is an academy it is not possible to put in place a single whole city system in place to tackle the issue. Some schools who struggle with high exclusion rates will not sign up to the encouraging pilot scheme;

RESOLVED to thank Councillor Sam Webster for his attendance at the meeting and to note the content of his report.