Agenda item

Corporate Director's Briefing

The Panel will receive a verbal update on this item from the Corporate Director (People).

Minutes:

The Corporate Director addressed the Panel, a copy of his briefing can be found on the Panel’s Minute Book or as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary is set out below.

 

GCSE and A Level Results

 

Early results as reported by schools indicate that pupils in Bath and North East Somerset have improved their GCSE results compared to last year. In a year when pupils, parents, teachers and school leaders have been concerned about the new, more challenging GCSE courses it is a credit to all concerned that results have improved.

 

Initial data across the area shows that the average Attainment 8 score (a measure showing how well pupils have done in a range of 8 subjects) has risen so that it is now equivalent to a strong pass (Grade 5). The proportion of pupils achieving at least a strong pass in both English and maths has risen from 42% to 48% and the proportion achieving at least a standard pass (Grade 4) has risen from 63% to 69%.

 

Early indications of A level results across the area show a substantial increase in the average grade achieved by pupils and this is a real credit to the hard work that they and their teachers have put in. From the results of nearly all the schools and colleges in the area it would seem that the average grade achieved has moved from a C in 2017 to halfway between a C and a B grade in 2018.

 

Alternative Education Provision

 

The Council has commissioned 2 new providers of Alternative Provision who have commenced locally from September 2018. Learn@ (for secondary-age provision) and Broadlands (Primary) were both successful in securing the necessary DfE registration status in time for the start of term.

 

Adoption West

 

Adoption West, the new Regional Adoption Agency serving B&NES, Bristol, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Wiltshire will be in place from 1st October 2018, with staff transferring across from individual local authorities on 1st November. A joint scrutiny arrangement is proposed for this service, which will be run by a new company wholly-owned by the 6 Local Authorities.

 

Admissions

 

Applications for school places for September 2019 are now open and we are encouraging families to use all 5 preferences on the application form to ensure their child has the best chance of securing a suitable local school place. We are conscious that the admissions process is complex to understand and heavily prescribed by the national Code of Practice.

 

The national Schools Adjudicator has recently determined an objection to the admissions criteria of Beechen Cliff School. The Adjudicator has found 16 ways in which the criteria do not comply with the Admissions Code and has given the school 2 months to revise them accordingly.

 

The Adjudicator also commented on the number of children in South West Bath being allocated a school place on the far side of Bath. His findings indicated that this was in part because parents did not understand the implications of not making use of all five preferences. I would once again ask all Councillors to encourage local parents to make full use of their 5 preferences.

 

The Chair asked if the ruling regarding Beechen Cliff would have any effect on Hayesfield as they shared a sibling link in their criteria for the 2018 admission process.

 

The Corporate Director replied that the admissions criteria for Hayesfield has not been objected to and as such will remain the same for the 2019 admissions. He added that they have received advice from the Schools Adjudicator and have agreed to undertake a review by 2020.

 

The Chair asked from what date did the two months for Beechen Cliff begin to make their revisions.

 

The Corporate Director replied that they received notification of the decision on September 10th.

 

Councillor Matt Cochrane said that this therefore means that parents will be making applications not knowing the actual criteria for the school.

 

The Corporate Director replied that there is little the Council can do. He added that the PAN for Hayesfield (238) is larger than that of Beechen Cliff (177).

 

Councillor Liz Hardman said that parents are going to be even more confused following this ruling. She stated that the criteria is unfair and discriminates against boys in Twerton. She asked if there were any lessons the Council can learn from this scenario.

 

The Corporate Director replied that the Council can look to be more alert to when schools make admissions criteria changes.

 

The Director of Education Transformation added that she believed that Beechen Cliff had already removed the link to siblings at Hayesfield for this year’s admission process.

 

Councillor Paul May commented that he felt it was important that everyone sees the letter from the Schools Adjudicator. He said that the number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds attending specific schools was still a key issue.

 

He said that there were issues to address at Beechen Cliff as its Ofsted rating had gone from Outstanding to Inadequate and had not performed as well as it could. He stated that the Council will be keeping the progress of the school under review.

 

The Chair thanked the Corporate Director for his update on behalf of the Panel.