Agenda and minutes

Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 1 - Wednesday, 9th October, 2019 14:30

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices Angel Street Bridgend CF31 4WB. View directions

Contact: Michael Pitman 

Items
No. Item

79.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including whipping declarations)

 

Minutes:

Cllr T Beedle declared a personal interest in item 4, Plasnewydd Primary School Post-Inspection Action Plan, because he was the Chair of Bridgend Governors Association and his wife was a Governor at Plasnewydd Primary School.

80.

Approval of Minutes pdf icon PDF 93 KB

To receive for approval the minutes of the meeting of 04/06/2019, 08/07/2019 and 23/08/2019

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered the minutes of the meetings of 4th June 2019, 8th July 2019 and 23rd August 2019.

 

4th June 2019 – Minute 66, paragraph 4, Mr Graham Adamson (not Gordon Adamson) addressed the Committee.

 

8th July 2019 – Councillors PA Davies and JPD Blundell were present at the meeting and did not send apologies as recorded. Both Councillors declared an interest in agenda item 4. Rev Canon Edward Evans and William Bond were incorrectly recorded as invitees and not members of the committee. 

 

23rd August 2019 – Rev Canon Edward Evans sent his apologies for the meeting but this was not recorded.    

 

RESOLVED:               That the Minutes of the Subject Overview and

                                    Scrutiny Committees dated 4th June 2019, 8th July 2019 and 23rd August 2019 be approved as a true and accurate record subject to the corrections detailed above.  

81.

Plasnewydd Primary School Post-Inspection Action Plan pdf icon PDF 79 KB

Invitees:

 

Lindsay Harvey, Corporate Director - Education and Family Support

Cllr Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration

Nicola Echanis, Head of Education and Early Help

Michelle Hatcher, Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement – Link Officer

Andy Rothwell, CSC Senior Challenge Advisor

Simon Phillips, CSC Challenge Advisor

Andrew Williams, Acting Managing Director CSC

Eleanor Williams, Headteacher

Andy Harding, Chair of Governors

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support presented a report informing Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 1 of the progress made by Plasnewydd Primary School in respect of the objectives in the school’s post-inspection action plan (PIAP). He welcomed Eleanor Williams (Headteacher), Andy Harding (Chair of Governors) and from Central South Consortium (CSC) Andrew Williams (Acting Managing Director), Andy Rothwell (Senior Challenge Advisor) and Simon Phillips (Challenge Advisor).

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support explained that Plasnewydd Primary School was inspected by Estyn in January 2018. As a result of the inspection, Estyn was of the opinion that the school required special measures. A PIAP was drawn up which illustrated how it would address the six recommendations identified. The local authority supported by CSC, completed a statement of action detailing how it would support the school. Since September 2018, Plasnewydd had received intensive support from the local authority and CSC and other schools had received funding to work with Plasnewydd to support them with their recommendations. The local authority and Central South Consortium would continue to support Plasnewydd Primary School as it had done throughout the post inspection process, until it was deemed that the school no longer required special measures. 

 

The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support explained that Plasnewydd Primary School was recently monitored by Estyn in June 2019. It was Estyn’s opinion that overall, the school required special measures although progress in some areas was identified. He explained that it would be rare for a school to come out of special measures after 1 year but every effort would be made to ensure the school was out of special measures as early as possible.     

 

A member asked if they were satisfied with the progress being made to improve the quality of teaching and assessment in key stage 2. The Corporate Director – Education and Family Services replied that they had to increase the speed of the journey. The school had received a lot of support and now they had to embed those actions. The CSC Challenge Advisor concurred that the pace needed to increase and there had to be consistency in approach.

 

The headteacher explained that in the current cohort there were very low levels in literacy with some pupils barely at bronze and that at least half would need literacy intervention. Good progress had been made from nursery to the end of foundation stage and they needed to continue this across KS2. She explained that as soon as children moved from KS1 to KS2 parents stopped reading with their children because they thought it was no longer necessary. They specifically targeted the year 2 cohort of 35 children and only 7 parents engaged with the school. The Committee noted the comments of the headteacher on the difficulties the school had engaging with families and the barriers for parents coming into the school as the school had an intake of pupils from a broad area which resulted in a lack of community cohesion  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81.

82.

Forward Work Programme Update pdf icon PDF 77 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Forward Work Programme and informed the Committee it would receive a report on Post 16 Education – Consultation, at its next meeting on 30 October 2019. The Committee also noted the invitees to attend.  

 

The Committee requested an update on progress as to whether the Wellbeing Survey completed by staff had been sent to school staff for completion. 

 

83.

Overview and Scrutiny - Feedback from Meetings pdf icon PDF 74 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered the feedback and officer’s responses and allocated RAG status to the following:

 

Post Inspection Action Plan in respect of the four main recommendations and the plans to improve the areas for development – Green

 

Post Inspection Action Plan – Summary report to be provided by the Corporate Director Education and Family Support to Scrutiny at the end of each term showing progress against post inspection plan objectives - Amber    

 

84.

Urgent Items

To consider any item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

None