Agenda item

OFSTED inspected Medway’s arrangements for school improvement in March 2015. The letter indicating OFSTED’s findings was published on 17 June 2015 and this report summarises the findings and the steps being taken to address the areas for improvement.

Discussion:

Members received an overview of the findings by Ofsted in its recent inspection of the local authority’s arrangements for school improvement, including the letter from Ofsted setting out its findings, which was published on 17 June 2015 and was attached at Appendix A to the report.

It was reported that the number of schools judged good or outstanding in Medway had improved since the inspection had taken place in March, with a further school being judged outstanding a few days before the meeting.    Officers highlighted the key areas for improvement and explained that Ofsted would be regularly monitoring the authority’s performance and improvement.

Members then raised a number of points and questions including:

·           Impact of children that are unable to reach the floor targets  – Officers explained that nationally other local authorities had the same challenges in relation to children that are unable to reach the floor targets and therefore Medway needed to ensure that provision was enabling all children to achieve the best they could and added that attainment of children with special educational needs in Medway was generally good.

·           Relationship with academies – In response to a question relating to the relationship between the local authority and academies, it was explained that strong relationships were key, as well as the ability to contact the sponsor of an academy to raise concerns.

·           Revised School Improvement Strategy – Upon a request that the revised strategy be reported to this committee officers confirmed that this would be done.

·           Learning aspirations – In response to the statement in the Ofsted letter, “although learning is at the heart of the council’s plans for the future, until recently this vision has not been embraced by all schools”, officers were asked how they ensure all schools embrace this.  Officers confirmed that they were making this aspiration clear as much as possible.  It was on the agenda of all meetings and discussions with schools related to identifying and sharing best practice.

·           16-19 Strategy – Concern was raised about the impact on 16 and 17 year olds if resource focus was diverted to 18 year olds where currently, rates of children who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), were much higher.  Officers explained that one of the reasons for numbers of NEETs rising at age 18 was because the tracking of young people aged 18 was not as effective.  Additionally it was confirmed that direct support for young people was envisaged to remain unchanged but the development work that had been done with 16 and 17 year olds would be directed to include 18 year olds too.  Other local authorities that had made this small shift in targeted work had been successful and a risk assessment had been carried out to mitigate against dips in performance.

·           Effective use of data – In response to a comment regarding the local authority’s ability to build capacity to ensure the effective use of data, officers confirmed that Ofsted were not critical of data used within schools but how the local authority used data in a strategic manner. Officers were exploring the possibility of a partnership arrangement in developing data awareness and also confirmed that a vacancy relating to a key post on data analysis had been filled on an interim basis with a full review of performance and intelligence in this area being undertaken.

·           Outcome of Ofsted inspections in schools since March – In response to a question officers confirmed that approximately 14 inspections of schools had been undertaken and all had improved or retained their judgement outcome with the exception of one school where the Ofsted inspection rating had fallen.  Two of the schools that maintained their Ofsted judgement were required to improve.

Decision:

The Committee noted the OFSTED letter on the inspection of Medway’s school improvement arrangements, and the response to the areas for improvement.